Cold
by sol113
Summary: Naruto/Samui pairing. A drama/humour/kinda romance involving a very different meeting between Naruto and Team Samui. AU from Manga chapter 452 onwards.
1. Chapter 1

**COLD**

**5th MARCH 2011**

**AUTHORS NOTES**

**AU of Manga chapter 452 onwards- A very different meeting between Naruto and Team Samui creates a different reaction from Naruto.**

**This fic is a Naruto/Samui pairing, Drama/Humor/(kinda) Romance fic. **

**'**_**This**_**' means someone is thinking.**

**Italics alone means the name of something, i.e. **_**Jinchuriki, Katon Jutsu**_**. **

**Horizontal ruler (a line across the page) means a page break or timeskip, may be a few minutes, may be a few hours...**

**-X- means a scene change, i.e. we start with Sakura and Sai in a clearing, then we go to Naruto and Samui in her apartment- a scene change from a street to an apartment.**

**This chapter is the first of a two parter, the second should be along soon as this started out as one chapter before being split into two.**

**This story started out simply as Naruto/Samui smut. Later I came up with the idea of using the background to look more deeply at Naruto's childish (and often deluded) outlook on the world, his delusions regarding Sasuke and his dysfunctional relationships in general. This is meant to be dramatic as well as kinky and humorous. Sexual content is in the upcoming second chapter.**

**Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto or any of the characters or ideas involved. This is non profit-i am making no money from this.**

* * *

As he and fellow leaf ninja Haruno Sakura briskly walked down the plain dirt trail alongside the Nakano river, Uzumaki Naruto couldn't help but wonder how and when things had gone so wrong...

His mind raced over what he'd been told in the past hour, struggling to find some way to fix the current crisis.

'_Grandma Tsunade has been replaced as Hokage. The new Hokage is some geezer called Danzo (who Nagato said was a bad guy)**.** Said geezer bad guy has made Sasuke a rogue ninja and given the order to have him killed. Kakashi-sensei's made some spiel about how Sasuke actually is a rogue ninja and that it is SOP to kill him. Sakura said she would see that creep Danzo in person so here I am to back her up! I have to stop anyone else from going after Sasuke! Only I can save him...'_

After Naruto had firmly (and loudly) announced his declaration of not allowing anyone to go after Sasuke, Kakashi had warned him about not making a scene as the two remaining members of Team 7 took off to confront...

"Sai! We were just looking for you." Sakura declared to the troubled looking (to the keen observer) ninja artist.

"We want to talk to you." Naruto added, remembering the pale ninja in front of them was one of Danzo's personal soldier; the supposedly disbanded Black Ops organisation known as the_ Root_.

"Please tell us everything you know about Danzo." Sakura demanded with her best 'determined face'.

**-X-**

Above the ruins of Konohagakure stood a newcomer to the troubled village; a curvaceous fair-skinned woman of tall stature and a truly remarkable bust. She had blue eyes and straight blond hair framing a lovely face with a shorter cut in the back and the front bangs reaching her shoulders. She wore a very low cut outfit with mesh underneath, a short skirt and red hand guards, high boots and what appeared to be a modified Kumogakure flak jacket that covered her stomach only, similar to a girdle. A well polished tanto was strapped horizontally to her lower back.

She was Samui; Jonin of Kumogakure, student of the Jinchuriki Killerbee, emissary of the Yondaime Raikage and a woman generally considered as having all the humanity and warmth of a Tetsu no Kuni winter.

The stunning woman stood in front of the_ Konoha Archive Library_- as a former _Kumo Ninja Academy_ book worm she was honored (and excited) to be in a place of such vast information and knowledge, and fortunate that since the building was located within the Hokage monument mountain, it was one of the few buildings to survive the recent invasion of Pain. Things were going well for the Kumo Jonin.

Too well...

'_I have received entry to the Leaf village without problem, delivered my letter as ordered, received official authorisation from the current Hokage to eliminate Uchiha and now have access to the invaluable resources of this place...'_

The kunoichi grimaced. Over the years many had become convinced Samui had telepathy because she could always sense whenever her sensei or team mates were doing something stupid. She was getting that feeling now.

'_Why did I let those two idiots roam this village freely?'_

She was well aware the new Hokage had agents following her; they were quite good at stealth but she still detected them quite easily using keen senses born from a past dodging the pranks of jealous and failed kunoichi. Her icy exterior kept her growing fears about her comrades hidden from them.

'_Wait, what am I worrying about? Even they wouldn't be stupid enough to start trouble when all alone in an enemy village... would they?'_

**-X-**

"Tell us what we want to know or we will hurt you!"

The threat came from Karui, Jonin level Kumo kunoichi and idiot team mate of Samui. She pointed a very long, well maintained Kumo standard long blade at the stunned team 7. The dark skinned redheaded kunoichi had demanded information on Sasuke in her usual belligerent tone and dismissive stance. Her male partner, fellow cloud Jonin and partner in idiocy Omoi, stood at her side letting the angry sword master dictate this extremely unwise move.

His training kicking in, Sai turned to an attack posture. Naruto was faster and snatched the Root member's tipless tanto from his shoulder holster almost faster than anyone could see the blond ninja move.

Naruto moved to defend Sakura by pushing her back nearly putting her on her ass and slashing at Karui's sword, knocking it up so hard to the hostile kunoichi it nearly felt like her arm would shatter.

Naruto pressed his advantage; dashing at extreme speed looking to elbow the surprised Kumo ninja into next week. Omoi on the other hand was quicker on the mark; he blocked the blond with a sheathed sword hilt to the elbow, positioning himself for his partner to regroup and attack. Karui used the momentum caused by Naruto's earlier tanto swing to leap into the air, land and swing horizontally at her orange clothed adversary.

"Take 'em down but don't cut them!" Omoi yelled to her partner hoping the violent woman wouldn't hack the leaf trio into pieces.

Karui was impressed when the absurdly dressed leaf ninja caught her damn near supersonic swing with ease between his hands right after a modified Kage Bunshin seal.

'_Whoah! So that's how a guy survives dressed like that.'_

Only seconds had passed since the fight started and the other members of Team 7 leapt in; Sai with a textbook kick that missed Omoi, and Sakura with a superpowered punch aimed for Karui that the incredibly fast Omoi cut off by kicking the medic flying through the air.

"AIEE!"

'_Damn it! What am I, a training dummy?'_ Inner Sakura roared.

One Naruto went after the sprawling Sakura, the other (the clone) received a reverse elbow to the head from Karui who clearly didn't need a big sword to be tough.

The two cloud ninja leapt back into the river creating distance between the two groups.

Team Kakashi mirrored them and regrouped.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Naruto yelled.

Omoi looked at them, zeroing in on their headbands in a rare clear display of anger and disgust.

"Cloud ninja...? What are you doing here?" Sakura demanded.

"You were just talking about Uchiha Sasuke... we want to hear more about him." Omoi replied pointing at them.

"Why... what does it have to do with you cloud ninja?" Sakura yelled back.

"A lot! Uchiha Sasuke of Konoha assaulted our village!" Omoi yelled losing the last of his composure.

"!" The leaf trio were stunned.

A third figure leapt in between the two groups. Feminine, blond and busty. For a moment Sakura thought Tsunade had henged into a woman in her twenties again.

"Captain Samui! Wh- what are you doing here?" Karui asked nervously. _'Oh we're fucked...'_

"I left a Bunshin at the Konoha Central Information Archive to copy all relevant information on Uchiha Sasuke. Were you fighting these Leaf ninja?" She leaned in dangerously.

"..." _'Oh damn, I don't need another lecture from her. They're so tedious I want to cut off my own ears-'_

Omoi cut Karui's thoughts off; "What clone did you leave? Tsuchi Bunshin? Iwa Bunshin? Mizu Bunshin? Raikage Bunshin?"

Samui knew the male ninja was trying to change the subject. They weren't as stupid as they looked. Or sounded. Or acted.

"A _Kage Bunshin_."

"Ah. Kage Bunshin is easy for you Captain of course; a ninja of your level, also those massive tits double as massive chakra batteries don't they?"

Samui knew Karui was trying to provoke her to avoid responsibility for potentially starting a war with the Leaf by attacking ninja in their territory. It may actually be working as Samui noticed the Leaf ninja staring at her rather than their attackers...

She turned to the leaf ninja ignoring her team mates; "I must apologise for my team mates. They are idiots. An argument can be made they were sent into the Leaf village because the Raikage considered them expendable."

That wasn't true but Samui needed to convince the ninja her imbecile comrades just assaulted to drop any charges before this turned into an international incident. Hopefully the strategic bow she gave the two males would help- it never worked with females- except that one time...

Staring at the over-endowed woman in front of them, Sai couldn't help but think; _'How does she maintain her balance with those abnormally large breasts? Also, do large breasts function as chakra storage devices? I should ask about this...'_

Sakura was thinking; _'Blond hair, huge tits, bad attitude, what is she a relative of Lady Tsunade or something?'_

She turned away from the leaf trio and adopted her 'You are all idiots and here's why' mode of speech with her team mates- the dismissive, lecturing tone of voice actually didn't sound any different than how she usually spoke to the uninitiated.

"I left you fools alone for five minutes while I acquired a search warrant for all information on Uchiha Sasuke and you assault three foreign ninja in their own village? Apologise at once." She coldly demanded.

"Did you say Sasuke?" Samui turned to see a teenaged blond who (idiotic orange outfit notwithstanding) looked like a miniaturized version of the Fourth Hokage. Samui had a thing for powerful men, finding chakra levels much more of a turn on than money, popularity or good looks.

Her first thought was how much chakra she could sense in him.

"You're... so big..." She approached, staring strangely.

"I'm what?" Naruto yelled.

"He's what?" Everyone else yelled.

Her second thought was that given his choice in wardrobe and loud, annoying voice was that he was an idiot.

Her third thought was something that truly stunned her; he was looking her in the eye- few people- male or female could do that.

'_Hmm, he might be interesting...'_

"I assume you're the leader, your bearing and superior chakra reserves (the size I referenced earlier) indicate this." Samui subtly bent over hoping to distract Naruto with slight cleavage (slight meaning jaw-droppingly huge).

'_My what now?' _

"Err yeah! I'm the leader. What do you want with Sasuke?"

Samui made a very familiar handseal and a Kage Bunshin appeared from a puff of smoke. One of the voluptuous blonds turned to Karui and Omoi.

"Follow me to the archive, we have work to do." The clone took off without checking if the two ninja followed.

The original spoke to Naruto. "Can I speak to you in private? I believe your subordinates may be... a distraction." She ignored Sakura and Sai speaking as though they weren't there while subtly pushing her chest forward.

'_Distraction! Who the hell does this walking cleavage think she is? Naruto if you go with this slut I will...'_

"Alright then." Naruto agreed with Samui's suggestion unaware of Sakura's rage.

"Gkkk!" Sakura choked. Sai considered performing the Heimlich maneuver on her. Then thought better of what would happen if he got in that position with her.

Samui turned to the choking pinkette and Sai.

"I apologise for their behavior." She stated in her most sincere tone- perfected after years of apologising for her sensei and team mates.

"Apology accepted." Sakura smiled falsely.

'_BITCH! I'll strangle you with your own freakishly sized boobs! Subordinates? Distraction? Who does this ninja hooker...nin-hooker, hook-ja, hooker-nin... think she is!' _

* * *

Naruto and Samui had relocated to a nearby sentry house- it was empty so the pair went inside to avoid prying eyes and ears.

"One week ago the Kumo outpost of_ Unraikyo_ was attacked by a group of powerful ninja wearing the robes of the terrorist organisation_ 'Akatsuki'_. We have one ninja dead, one wounded and one- our sensei- missing- possibly dead."

"What does this have to do with Sasuke?"

She paused for effect. "Uchiha Sasuke was leading the group. He was wearing the Akatsuki robes and assaulted the shinobi I just spoke of."

Naruto's heart froze in horror, his blue eyes widened in disbelief.

"W-wait. How do you know it was Sasuke? It could have been a guy Henged as him... to frame him!"

Samui shook her head, unconvinced. "No, the killed ninja- a man named Jei was killed by an extreme penetration Raiton jutsu. The wounds on the corpse match those known to be caused by Hatake Kakashi's_ Chidori_ and child techniques. Furthermore, a sentry (the wounded ninja) was taken down via high level genjutsu performed without hand signs; a visual genjutsu. A Sharingan trademark. Lastly, our sensei was wounded by the_ Amaterasu_- a jutsu only accessible via _Mangekyo Sharingan_."

Naruto desperately thought of some way to explain away Sasuke's behaviour.

"W-wait. How do you know what jutsu the Mangekyo Sharingan has?"

"Through historical records, including the historic battle between Tsuchikage Onoki and Uchiha Madara at-"

"Wait! What do you know about Uchiha Madara?" He yelled in her face.

The woman's demeanor didn't change, but she was getting annoyed with the loud blond.

"We are getting off topic. The point is; a rogue Konoha shinobi killed a shinobi of Kumo and abducted another. Your Hokage has given us permission to eliminate Uchiha and had offered all available information on him. If you don't wish to assist us in killing a former Leaf ninja then I humbly ask that you do not prevent us from finding our sensei." She said the speech with no inflection or emotion in her voice or stance, but secretly she wanted to kick this annoying fool clear over the Hokage monument.

"Wait, you don't know Sasuke! He would never do this..."

* * *

Naruto (while in tunnel vision mode hence why he wasn't drooling over Samui's breasts) had just finished reciting an idealised version of team 7's history.

The busty kunoichi was not impressed.

"The thing with Sasuke was... at first I couldn't stand him. But later... I felt this need to chase him, to fight with him and get closer to him."

Samui hmmed at him. "It can't be easy hunting down your lover-"

"Whaaaat!" Naruto yelled.

'_Men are so easy, just question their sexuality and they fall apart and tell you whatever you want.'_

Samui continued; "This Sasuke abandoned the village, attempted to kill you- twice. He has fulfilled his mission of vengeance, yet not only has he still made no attempt to return to your village but has now joined a terrorist organisation that has committed violence against all five great powers. Yet you are making excuses and turning a blind eye to his transgressions. This is not the behaviour of team mates for the approximate six months you described. Since you are not related by blood I naturally assumed you were lovers. There is no stigma attached to homosexuality in Kumogakure-"

"I'm not gay! I'M NOT GAY! I'm really sick of telling people this!" Naruto screamed so loud he was sure they'd heard it in the next land over.

"Then why are you willing to go to such extreme lengths for Sasuke?"

"Because he accepted me-" "When did he do that?" Samui asked doing her best 'confused blond' bit. It was amazing how many men were stupid enough to fall for it

"When he said I was one the ones he wanted to fight the most... at the Chunin exams."

"That was an acknowledgement to your physical abilities, not a demonstration of affection. I have had people who openly despised me say similar things to me- mostly because they wanted to hurt me."

"It wasn't like that with me and Sasuke-" Naruto winced at how that sounded.

"What was it like? What did you see in Sasuke's heart?"

"I saw... wait, why'd you say it like that? You really do think I'm gay don't you?"

"No, I think you're so devoid of real human contact that any kind of attention, acknowledgement or affection causes you to convince yourself that you have some kind of profound spiritual connection with them."

"That's not it!" He yelled. He got up in Samui's face, angry. She remained as cool and composed as an ice sculpture.

"People fake emotions all the time."

"You can't fake what me and Sasuke had!" Samui's eyebrows rose in amusement. Naruto froze realising what he had just said.

"Really?" She put a hand on Naruto's head and pulled him in kissing him on the mouth.

"..." Naruto stood there too shocked to do anything.

Finally she broke the lip lock leaving Naruto standing there astonished.

"If I, a random stranger, kissed you, does that make me your lover? Your soulmate?"

Naruto stood there stunned. No one had ever touched him in this way. He didn't know how to respond- his brain had completely shut down.

Samui's hand shot out and grabbed his crotch squeezing gently snapping him out of his freeze.

"It is easy and cheap to give false affection. Let me show you how easily it is to give... physical affection."

* * *

**END CHAPTER 1**

**AUTHORS NOTES**

Lots of chatter here- i wanted to explain why there was no consequences against Team Samui even though in canon they committed an act of war against the Leaf by attacking their ninja within their boarders.

As stated at the top of the page this story started out simply as Naruto/Samui smut. Later I came up with the idea of using the background to look more deeply at Naruto's psychology; including his childish outlook on the world, his delusions regarding Sasuke and his dysfunctional relationships in general. There is full on sex (edited like in my other fic_ Domination_) in the upcoming second chapter. This story is mean to be dramatic as well as kinky and humorous.

**Samui's abilities- **I didn't want to go crazy and give her some ludicrous powers like two Kekkei Genkai or a magic sword, I didn't want her to be a pushover though.

**Tetsu no Kuni-** Land of Iron- the land used in the Gokage summit. Depicted as an icy, snow covered country ruled by Samurai.

**Nakano River-** the river Team 7 and the cloud ninja fight at is never given a name- Nakano river was where Itachi killed his friend Shisui in canon.

**Jinchuriki-** Literally meaning 'Power of human sacrifice', the name given to humans who act as hosts to demons known as the Biju (Tailed Beasts).


	2. Affection

**COLD PART 2**

**19th MARCH 2011**

**AUTHORS NOTES**

**AU of Manga chapter 452 onwards- A very different meeting between Naruto and Team Samui creates a different reaction from Naruto.**

**This fic is a Naruto/Samui pairing, Drama/Humour/(kinda romance) fic. **

**'**_**This**_**' means someone is thinking.**

**Italics alone means the name of something, i.e. **_**Jinchuriki, Katon Jutsu**_**. **

**Horizontal ruler (line across the page) means a page break or timeskip, may be a few minutes, may be a few years...**

**-X- when in bold means a scene change, i.e. we start with Sakura and Sai in a clearing, then we go to Naruto and Samui in her apartment- a scene change from a street to an apartment. In this chapter -X- when not in bold means timeskips for Naruto and Samui's flashbacks.  
**

**This story started out simply as Naruto/Samui smut. Later I came up with the idea of using the background to look more deeply at Naruto's childish (and often deluded) outlook on the world, his delusions regarding Sasuke and his dysfunctional relationships in general. This is mean to be dramatic as well as kinky and humorous. This chapter is a rewrite of the NC17 chapter posted on AdultFanfictiondotNet with content removed and new content added.  
**

**Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto or any of the characters or ideas involved in related franchises. This is non profit-i am making no money from this.**

* * *

"People fake emotions all the time."

"You can't fake what me and Sasuke had!" Samui's eyebrows rose in amusement. Naruto froze realising what he had just said.

"Really?" She put a hand on Naruto's head and pulled him in kissing him on the mouth.

"!" Naruto stood there too shocked to do anything.

Finally she broke the lip lock leaving Naruto standing there astonished.

"If I, a random stranger, kissed you, does that make me your lover? Your soulmate?"

Naruto stood there stunned. No one had ever touched him in this way. He didn't know how to respond- his brain had completely shut down.

Samui's hand shot out and grabbed his crotch squeezing gently, snapping him out of his freeze.

"It is easy and cheap to give false affection. Let me show you how easy it is to give... physical affection."

The stunning female once again kissed Naruto fiercely. While still connected at the mouth she shoved Naruto to the cabins wooden wall. The Leaf ninja gawked at her in childish shock mumbling something unintelligible around the kunoichi's mouth.

Finally breaking the lip lock to allow Naruto to breath, Samui grabbed his wrists and forced them above his head beneath a wooden crossbeam with impressive strength.

"W-wow... y-you're really strong and pre-"

"Keep your hands there." She demanded.

"... Ye-yes sir!" Naruto nodded eagerly before being kissed again.

The kunoichi wasn't sure if the orange clad ninja was being sarcastic or was just naturally submissive to domineering women. Any kind of submissive behaviour towards a foreign Ninja from someone who should be listed in the Bingo book as an S-class threat was an idea that intrigued and confused the logic driven kunoichi.

She unzipped and pulled his orange and black jumpsuit and mesh undershirt up and off his body, allowing his arms down long enough to remove the unflattering garment. Beneath the hideous clothing Naruto was reasonably appealing; not bulging with muscle like the freakish Raikage or his younger brother, but not scrawny either.

Samui had done seduction before, and if she was right this young ninja was a virgin. Easy to manipulate.

While holding his wrists with one hand she went to work on his bare chest; running her blunted nails up and down his chest and stomach and teasing his nipples with her nimble fingers and skilled tongue.  
Reacting in joy, Naruto brought a hand down to caress the much more experienced kunoichi's head.

"I told you to keep your hands up." She admonished.

"Y-yes sir!"

He returned his hands to the wall above him.

'_I don't have a lot of experience dealing with Leaf Ninja but it can't be normal for him to be this trusting and submissive to a stranger can it?'_

Samui looked away from his scared face and saw his erection through his bizarre bright orange pants.

_'He hasn't lost it from my teasing alone, so I guess he's ready for more...'_

She unfastened and pulled her Flak jacket off and used it to tie Naruto's hands together to the wooden post that went from the wall they were leaning against to the ceiling.

"Hey" Naruto protested, finally attempting to struggle against Samui's actions. Attempting being the operative word as the busty woman was impressively strong and Naruto didn't want to use his full strength and risk hurting her.

"Trust me." Samui replied in her usual cold voice. Naruto inexplicably was calmed and reassured by this.

"O-okay..."

Samui rarely thought about men- she considered most of them not worth her time- that, and it was rarely hard to figure out what they were thinking in her presence (which got old really quick), however she did appreciate a very powerful, weirdly submissive male.

She kneeled in front of the now restrained male. She unzipped his ridiculous orange pants and pulled them down along with his boxer shorts. It took all of her training and natural ice-queen-iness to not react and gawk at the almost impossibly sized member in front of her;  
_'Did energy normally used for brain development go to his cock instead?'_

Naruto stared self consciously at the Kunoichi; his expression was pure fear.  
'_She doesn't think my... thing is small or... not worth her time does she?_

"Gaah! What the?" Naruto's mouth widened so far his jaw threatened to unhinge as Samui made her move...

* * *

**FLASHBACK**

A six year old Uzumaki Naruto saw how the people treated him; cold eyes, cold words, not giving him a chance. It was so painful he swore he'd never become like them...

-X-

A twelve year old Naruto stood stunned as he looked at those who acknowledged him... he felt grateful... feeling that he mattered... that he was alive. Happy in the ignorance that this wasn't going to last...

-X-

A slightly older Naruto stared in horror at the fallen body of the one known as Haku, the stranger had spoken of precious people giving one some kind of special power. Naruto had no idea what that meant, but it sounded... amazing.

-X-

He fought with desperation to defeat the monster known as Gaara. He felt something... profound when Sasuke stood up and offered to sacrifice himself to let his comrades escape...

-X-

Sakura had just hit him again for suggesting her Sasuke-kun wasn't into girls. Even as he rubbed the growing bruise on his head he was smirking internally since this was better than being ignored... anything was better than that cold, empty blackness...

* * *

Samui unwrapped the girdle around Naruto's arms releasing the bonds holding him in the air. As soon as the blond Jinchuriki put his feet on the ground the kunoichi violently took him to the cold, hard floor in a Judo like move then took hold of his wrists forcing them flat on the ground above the stunned male's head. Rather than cry out or protest Naruto seemed even more turned on by the rough treatment.

"W-wow! Samui-chan! You're so strong and..."

She put her hand over his mouth, cutting him off; "What do you know about oral sex?" She asked with an inappropriately deadpan delivery.

"Wha- what do I know about wha...?" Naruto stammered.

Samui smiled. Naruto thought it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. Warm and bright as the sun, anybody else would say he was crazy.

* * *

**FLASHBACK**

Years ago, in the village hidden in the clouds, the parents of a six year old girl were arguing again.. their daughter decided to leave. She went to the Kumo Ninja Academy Library. She preferred it there, it was much quieter there, more organised, not full of shouting and anger and the occasional crash...

...and she didn't want to wait to see if her mother left the argument with bruises again.

-X-

When the eight year old Samui's mother died in battle with ninja of Iwa, her father told her to put her emotions aside and to take care of herself at all costs. It was one of the few times he gave good advice. It was also the last advice he gave anyone before he took his life by hanging himself from a bridge with ninja wire.

-X-

At her academy graduation, the ten year old Samui barely heard her chief instructor reciting a time honoured speech about honour and the glory of serving Kumogakure against "all enemies and threats, foreign and domestic". She looked around at her fellow students, she hadn't even bothered to learn their names figuring half of them would be dead on their first mission...

* * *

After both expending themselves, Naruto pulled Samui close to him, hugging her to his chest and burying his head in her sweet-smelling hair while he stroked her head in an affectionate manner he'd seen years before from a reunited kunoichi mother and daughter.

Somewhat disturbed by this, Samui detangled herself from Naruto and retook control of the clingy ninja- by pulling him to the floor on top of her.

Naruto gasped, not understanding what she was doing.

"Don't hold back. I want you to use all of your strength..."

"But..." He stopped as the look on Samui's face held no room for disagreement.

She directed him to enter her again and he drove into her with enormous force.

"AH! Yes! Keep doing that..."

She might have wished she could have said something more intelligent and precise, but at the moment she didn't care. Naruto was driving into her so hard it felt like the skin and muscles on her back would tear off as she rubbed against the wooden floor. Like her pelvis would shatter as his body crashed against hers. Like her whole body would tear apart as the ninja on top drove into her with unbelievable speed and power.

If she wasn't a ninja, naturally able to reinforce her bodies structural integrity she would have been massively wounded- maybe killed by this...

After several more minutes of nearly driving the Kunoichi through the floor, both Naruto and Samui came to their end result; massive orgasms causing even the stoic Kumo Kunoichi to cry out in pain.

**-X-**

"What the hell was that?" Sakura growled.

"What?" Sai asked. The pair had returned to assisting in search, rescue and salvage operations in the village, confident Naruto could handle one Kumo ninja.

_'Unless she's handling him...'_ A piece of granite was crushed in Sakura's hand. Sai wisely backed off.

* * *

Samui staggered away from Naruto (who lay barely conscious on the floor). She picked up her clothing, paused to grimace and rub her bruised back, then began redressing- in no seeming hurry.

"Ah... so... what now?" He asked dreamily.

"Now I rejoin my comrades in their information search. Afterwards I will return to Kumo. Of course if you have any information on the Akatsuki I'd be happy to-"

Naruto froze. "W-wait! You mean... I thought we... I mean... what we just did..."

Samui stared at him. "You think sex is always a profoundly spiritual act? In the ninja world this is rarely so, it can be many less wholesome things." She spoke from personal experience.

"B-but..." Naruto stammered, voice choking.

"You think this meant something? Shinobi need to see the world for what it is- not what they want it to be. Those who make that mistake... die."

She paused for a moment, actually feeling sorry for the fool.

"I hope our villages will work together in the future to defeat the Akatsuki- this means people like you need to wake up. Your ideas about never giving up on people and unbreakable bonds are a childish fantasy. Traitors exist and must be dealt with. Lethal force is often required and Shinobi are often called upon to make harsh choices."

With that, she turned and walked away.

Naruto looked away from the harsh woman remembering both Jiraiya and Itachi saying similar words to him...

* * *

Hours later Samui had met up with her team mates. They had completed their work at the Konoha Central Archive a while after the blonds Kage Bunshin expired.

"What were you doing while I was endangering my shinobi career-"

Karui cut the whining Omoi off; "All you were doing was writing! Copying information!"

Omoi was unfazed by her yelling; "I risked tendinitis; risking both my sword skills and my ability to utilise handseals quickly..."

"From Uzumaki Naruto I received an impressive amount of intelligence on Uchiha Sasuke." Samui reported deciding to intervene before they really got started.

"You look and smell funny." Omoi reported. His eyes widened,.

"You didn't just have freaky/extraordinary sex with that orange guy in an attempt to break his freakish obsession with Sasuke and therefore make him useful to us/ teach him a life lesson and force him to grow up and change into a more capable ninja did you?"

Karui leapt forward in one of her aggressive stances; waving a knuckle sandwich, one knee lifted into the air before her, eyes bulged, body trembling, yelling;

"Whaat! You know Captain Samui only likes super strong/super intelligent/super deep types! Right!"

"My taste in men is immaterial to this conversation." She blandly replied, her response enraging her comrades as usual.

'_Though he could be something if he grows up and gets past his emotional problems...'_

**-X-**

Naruto sat naked against the Sentry house wall. Alone. He struggled desperately to get a hold of his still churning emotions. He did something he didn't do often; doubt and think; _'Why'd she do that? Go that far to make a point? Should I go after her...?'_

* * *

**END CHAPTER 2**

**AUTHORS NOTES**

**Naruto's character and behaviour-** My opinion on the problem with Naruto in canon is that the world needs idealists- people who see the world for what it could be, not for what it is- but Naruto crossed the line between idealism and self delusion years ago when he convinced himself that Sasuke was kidnapped instead of leaving of his own free will. Naruto further sank into fantasy when he explained away his "friend and brother's" various crimes including trying to kill him twice (three times in current manga timeline).

**Samui-** I decided that Samui would be a realist and somewhat of a cynic to counteract Naruto's over the top idealism. I also decided she would be a ninjutsu specialist with abilities in both lightning and fire natures. The reason for this is partially that in canon she doesn't carry any tools beside a tanto so I doubt she'd be a weapons specialist, being a medical ninja is overdone for kunoichi in Naruto and Genjutsu would be too hard to write. Also I already wrote that Samui could perform the Shadow clone jutsu in the previous chapter.

**How long the story will last-** Originally this story was only going to last two chapters, however given the enormous positive reaction it has received I have decided to expand it beyond that, I haven't decided how far yet, at least as far as the Confining Jinchuriki arc (I intend to deviate from canon obviously).


	3. Resolve

**COLD PART 3  
**

**MAY 1st 2011**

**AUTHORS NOTES**

**AU of Manga chapter 452 onwards- A very different meeting between Naruto and Team Samui creates a different reaction from Naruto.**

**This fic is a Naruto/Samui pairing, Drama/Humor/(kinda) Romance fic. **

**'**_**This**_**' means someone is thinking.**

**Italics alone means the name of something, i.e. **_**Jinchuriki, Katon Jutsu**_**. **

**Horizontal ruler (a line across the page) means a page break or timeskip, may be a few minutes, may be a few hours...**

**-X- means a scene change, i.e. we start with Sakura and Sai in a clearing, then we go to Naruto and Samui in her apartment- a scene change from a street to an apartment.**

**This chapter starts out a little slow but picks up, the fourth chapter will have more action in it.**

**This story started out simply as Naruto/Samui smut. Later I came up with the idea of using the background to look more deeply at Naruto's childish (and often deluded) outlook on the world, his delusions regarding Sasuke and his dysfunctional relationships in general. This is meant to be dramatic as well as kinky and humorous. **

**Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto or any of the characters or ideas involved. This is non profit-I am making no money from this.**

* * *

"What do you mean you're going to see the Raikage?" Sakura yelled at Naruto causing the supposed S-class ninja to backpedal from the small girl in fear.

"I'm going to talk to him about Sasuke." He replied, adopting the position of someone about to dodge a punch.

Yamato jumped in; "The Gokage summit's about to begin! Every shinobi village is expected to curtail excursions and unnecessary missions outside their village! You no longer have the sealing necklace! You, as the Jinchuriki, mustn't-"

Naruto had zoned out, wondering; _'What happened to you Yamato? You used to be cool.'_

"-And I can't stick to you every minute, having been assigned the task of reconstructing the village!"

"I saw the Fourth Hokage." Naruto said simply.

"?"

The room (or tent) was stunned- actually they looked more confused, like they were wondering if Naruto was sniffing glue or had taken a hit to the head.

"The one who stopped me from going nine-tailed during the fight with Pain was the Fourth Hokage."

"The Fourth Hokage is dead..." Sakura whispered sounding disturbed.

Kakashi stepped in. "The Shiki Fujin... a lot about isn't understood due to its complexity. The Fourth may have stored some of his mental energy within the sealing spell. It could be possible if the Fourth used a variation of Kage Bunshin to copy his thoughts and memories and sealed the clone mind within the seal." Kakashi paused as he considered just how much complexity would be required to house a clone of a human consciousness, on top of a prison for an immensely powerful demonic spirit no less!

'_I guess that's why they called you the best, sensei...'_

"The Fourth Hokage told me... the Akatsuki guy who wears a mask was behind the Kyuubi attack sixteen years ago! His name is Uchiha Madara and he's the one pulling the strings. Pain was just being used!"

He paused for a second.

"And... he's probably using Sasuke now too."

"Madara? That's impossible. He's dead, and even if he wasn't, where's he been for the past several decades? Plus, we fought the masked guy while Sasuke was fighting Itachi- he didn't move like a guy who was pushing a hundred years old." Yamato coolness dropped another point as the former ANBU operator seemed to be panicking now.

"Who is this Madara jerk? Samui-cha-errr, the cloud ninja mentioned he fought the Sandaime Tsuchikage and that he had Mangekyo Sharingan, but nothing else." Naruto hoped Kakashi didn't notice his little slip, his reputation was positive for once, he didn't need people knowing a foreign Kunoichi made him her bitch.

"Madara was once the head of the Uchiha clan, he turned traitor, fought the first Hokage, lost and was believed killed. Nothing was heard from him again."

The Copy Ninja paused for a moment.

"This information needs to be reported to the council... Sai, could you contact Danzo and report this?"

He turned back to Naruto, his voice softer than it had been. "Naruto. Did... the Fourth say anything else to you?"

Naruto paused, gulped remembering what his apparent father said to him, and how it related to what had happened more recently.

"He said... he told me... he believed in me!" He yelled the words at the top of his lungs as thought they validated or solved the various problems and disasters he had been facing recently.

"I'm sorry, but we can't leave the village. It'll just make this situation worse- even if Kumo doesn't use this situation to their political advantage, you going AWOL is all the excuse Danzo needs to lock you up."

"Grr... fine I'll stay right where you can see me. Is that all right with you, Mom?" He turned to Yamato whose coolness had significantly dropped over the last few minutes.

"I'm going to get something to eat." Naruto left.

When he was sure no one was watching the orange Genin burst into the puff of smoke all Kage Bunshins were fated to.

**-X-**

Several miles away, outside Konoha's outer wall, sitting on the remains of an abandoned military outpost from the last great war, the real Uzumaki Naruto frowned as the memories of the clones conversation flowed into his mind.

_'Just as I expected. Time for plan B...'_

Taking a deep breath he thought back to the various meditative techniques Jiraiya had taught him, then went through the related Senjutsu awakening technique. He opened himself up to the power, the essence of the world around him; his anger over Sasuke's latest betrayal, the horror of the Akatsuki attack on Konoha, his confusion and hurt over the... mess with Samui. The nature energy flowed into him granting him awareness beyond sight, sound, smell, touch or taste. Naruto could actually sense the life force of living creatures both great and small for miles around; he felt a child being pulled from rubble of a... collapsed building? A medic healing broken ribs with medical jutsu. Birds flying through the air uncaring of man's latest self destructive episode.

Naruto hadn't mastered Senjutsu- not by a long shot, he couldn't control what he sensed, zero in and search for one single energy source without assistance- like when he used Pain's chakra receiver as a type of focus to find Nagato's approximate location, however he felt himself drawn to one moving energy source in particular- the one he was actually looking for; Samui's. It felt bizarrely warm and vibrant given her cold, all business bitch persona, Naruto actually felt himself drawn to it wanting to wrap himself in the warmth, to drown in the energy.

Naruto felt himself snapped out of it when the ancient wall he was meditating on collapsed, Naruto caught himself before he landed on his head. He looked around and saw that the sun had gone down._ 'How long have I been... ogling Samui's life force? I should get this done...'_

Creating two more Kage Bunshin (one to help in ongoing search and rescue operations, the other as backup) Naruto rushed off in the direction of the presence he had become very familiar with.

_'Hopefully I'll find what I'm looking for...'_

* * *

**TETSU NO KUNI  
**

Samui studied the frozen forests of the Land of Iron, searching for their Kage and his escorts. She was unaffected by the cold and howling wind despite wearing only a short cloak over her usual tantalisingly short and thin clothing.

A disturbing familiar feeling shot through her; they were being followed. While Samui was no high level sensor like her colleague C, it was impossible to miss the massive single source of chakra emanating from behind them, she signalled in code to her team mates to change course.

Team Samui kept running in a very different course to their original that would rendezvous with the Raikage until they entered a small town, primarily made up of one storey wooden houses, quite nice to look at. They walked up to a cosy looking Inn on the outskirts of the picturesque location.

"Why are we stopping here? There's plenty of hours left before dark."

"This is as far as we go with us being followed." Samui whispered. Before the busty Kunoichi realised her mistake Karui acted;

"Show yourselves, cowards!" The Kunoichi declared adopting an aggressive pose and puffing herself up to full levels of righteousness.

_'Subtly is a foreign subject to you isn't it Karui?'_

Naruto stepped out from their hiding place, careful not to provoke the three Kumo ninja he now faced.

"Hey look Samui! It's that guy you 'received a great deal of information' from." Omoi grinned with obvious sarcasm.

Naruto stared at Samui, trying his best to put on that 'mask' professional ninja wear. Or at least not look like a puppy returning to his master. Or just a complete idiot. He turned away from her cold eyes and looked at the ground in front of her noticing how attractive her toes and ankles looked against the pretty white snow.

'_Damn it! I even think her feet look good! What the hell is wrong with me!'_

He forced himself to focus on the three faces; Karui looked angry (again), Omoi looked between amused and annoyed, Samui looked cold- although he swore he could see some annoyance there.

**-X-**

**TENPI INN**

"Why are you following us?" Samui asked, happy that inside the warm building she didn't have to shout over the wind.

"I planned to follow you to the Raikage and petition him. You're- pretty good. To have detected me I mean. Could you pass my request on to your superiors when you see them?" Naruto worded it as politely as he knew how, aware they would not lead them to the Raikage when he was on the road under minimal guard and that this was far from the best plan ever conceived.

"Hmm. But, don't you think this is a bit rude? To follow us on our way to our leader, in this dangerous, unforgiving territory, without any prior notice or our consent..." Omoi scolded in his most smarmy/condescending voice.

"Yes, I know-"

"Screw that! You, blond stud! Talk! Or I cut you up!" Karui growled.

Naruto gulped, but not because of the latest threat against his health.

Samui frowned- perhaps the closest the reserved woman could come to a panicked expression. _'Please don't do something stupid or embarrassing.'_

"Uchiha Sasuke... I want the Raikage to cancel his death..."

'_You idiot...'_ Samui felt like punching him.

"I don't want Sasuke's death to become the cause of war between Konoha and Kumo! I don't want either my comrades or yours to seek vengeance!" He carried on.

"You're here to plead for mercy for Sasuke? After everything he's done?" Karui shouted.

"No. I want your Kage to allow Konoha to deal with Sasuke. Specifically I will kill him." Naruto replied with total conviction feeling strangely unaffected by the fact that he had just declared himself to be Sasuke's executioner. But there was no choice. By joining the Akatsuki, especially now, after Pain's murderous rampage through Konoha, Sasuke had done something even Naruto couldn't forgive.

Omoi looked stunned- either by Naruto's courage for coming here alone, or by his stupidity at coming here alone. Karui looked murderous. Samui kept her furious fellow Kunoichi back with a dismissive gesture.

"You two go get something to eat. The leaf ninja and I have business to talk about." She spoke through gritted teeth which was the most angry they had seen Samui since that time Killer Bee spiked her tea with Hyoragan- taking the Kumo version of the pills of concentrated stimulants and nutrients when fully rested had Samui bouncing off the walls like an eight year old on a sugar high.

"By business they mean sex right?" Omoi nudged his team mate as they watched Samui storm off with Naruto following her without cue like a puppy.

**-X-**

Naruto and Samui stood alone in an abandoned building on the edge of town.

"You came all this way alone, risking your life to plead for the chance to be the big hero who vanquishes evil all on his own? I thought you were socially retarded, not stupid."

Naruto tried not to wince at the Kunoichi's harsh tone. "Listen to me. Sasuke has always been obsessed with vengeance and death. I don't want anyone else to become like him. If someone from your village kills Sasuke it'll start an escalating cycle of violence between our two villages, I don't want Konoha and Kumo to kill each other over one person's hatred."

Samui blinked at Naruto's choice of language wondering how someone so quickly went from being so stupid they seemed brain damaged to speaking like an actual ninja with vision of the future.

"Letting the Uchiha walk is impossible considering what he's done and who he's aligned with. But I will pass your... request along to the Raikage."

"He's going to reject it out of hand, isn't he?"

"Yes. The Akatsuki are to be named international criminals. Once that happens, all members of the organisation will be hunted down and eliminated by the forces of all five Great Shinobi nations. You stood your ground and submitted a request for an end to violence, even though it isn't possible. Your actions are stupid, but brave."

Naruto knew this wasn't a good idea. But he felt he had to do it- while Naruto believed he could restrain himself if foreign Ninja killed Sasuke he didn't think Sakura, Ino or any of the last Uchiha's ignorant fanclub could. They may set out for revenge, die, and their deaths would fuel a new war. Naruto would not let war touch Konoha again, that was why he was here, he was not here for Samui... not primarily anyway...

"I didn't come all this way alone just to talk about Sasuke... back at the village... why'd you go so far?"

"What do you mean?"

"Someone told me Shinobi were a battle against hatred... he should have also said they were a battle against despair, against cynicism..."

He paused remembering the other reason he was here.

"Why did you... you know." He blushed. "Then... walking away like it was nothing... do you hate Leaf ninja? Or me?"

"I don't hate you. When I walked through your village, people spoke of you. They believe in you- some say you should be Hokage- this means you have a responsibility to them- you can't afford to endanger yourself or others on a whim or misguided desire. That's not what Hokages do."

"How could I be Hokage when I can't even... I won't give up! I can't just walk away from what happened. I felt something. I know you did too."

"You're confusing lust with love."

"No... I admit to not knowing all that much about relationships but I know that..."

Samui turned away. This talk was making her uncomfortable.

"You're not supposed to come back... you're supposed to move on and change and not..." Her voice wobbled, not quite breaking.

"What happened to make you give up on people? To- !"

He turned as he sensed a new presence; Uchiha Madara sitting on the windowsill. Even with his face hidden behind his distinctive orange mask Naruto could tell by his posture he was amused.

"Oh don't stop on my behalf, I was riveted by the drama. I should have brought popcorn..."

**ELSEWHERE IN TETSU NO KUNI  
**

A team of Hatake Kakashi, Inuzuka Kiba, his partner Akamaru, Haruno Sakura and Sai stormed through the snowy region. They had discovered Naruto's deception when his Kage Bunshin was asked to help in lifting a piece of rubble during the still ongoing search and rescue operations- the clone cut a finger open on a sharp piece of metal- barely more than a paper cut but still enough to dispel the clone. A simple sensor jutsu from Yamato confirmed that Naruto had left the village. Kakashi had quietly put together a team and set off after him, using Pakkun to follow his scent. The group were silent, and keeping a safe distance from Sakura.

_'Naruto, if this had anything to do with that bitch with beach balls inserted under her skin I will gouge your eyes out... no, first I'll castrate you, then I'll gouge your eyes out that way you'll get to see your balls being cut off from your body...'_

**-X-**

Naruto stood alone staring into the night, the snow lightly falling, bizarrely Madara had shown up only to monologue about the forgotten past, made a few threats, then left without a fight, but the masked man's words still rang in his ears...

"_You assume you know Sasuke's true feelings... but you couldn't be more in the dark."_

"_He chose vengeance... he is of my kind."_

"_It is the blood soaked Uchiha destiny of hate. A curse that's been repeating over and over since the ancient past._

"_You are just the next in line to be chosen by destiny."_

"_The Uchiha clan is cursed with a destiny of vengeance..."_

"What a sad, pathetic man."

"What?" Naruto snapped out of his selective flashbacks hearing Samui's familiar voice.

"Madara. From his little history lesson it sounds like he long ago decided to blame all of his problems and hide from his actions using curses and destiny and fate... he's stopped..." She paused.

"Stopped believing in people? That humans can change for the better?" Naruto supplied.

"Yes." Samui looked down disturbed.

'_Is that what I've become? Like him?'_

"When... he was talking... Madara... I saw snowflakes land on his clothes, his cloak flutter in the wind. He must only be able to stay intangible as long as he can hold his breath."

"Yeah. Good eye there..." Naruto commented, knowing he'd hit a nerve.

Samui's team mates leapt in, swords drawn.

"We heard an explosion. What's going on? Please tell me it was rough sex. If it was- describe. With diagrams if possible." Omoi improperly shouted.

Naruto freaked out, sweat and even steam appeared, he babbled incoherently.

"We were discussing politics of inter-village relations when we were attacked by an Akatsuki member."

"Er, yeah, that." Naruto respected Samui's ability to stay cool- no ticks or tells at all.

Karui turned to Omoi. "Ha! I told you they wouldn't get past foreplay. You owe me dinner. Something very expensive..."

* * *

"So you think this Madara guy is the Akatsuki leader? So where the hell's he been for the past few decades?"

"We don't know." Naruto replied.

"Why is he showing up now?"

"We don't know."

"If this guy's so powerful, why was he using pawns to hunt Jinchuriki for him?"

"We don't know." Naruto was getting annoyed now.

"There just seems to be quite a few gaps in your 'Uchiha Madara is the wizard behind the curtain' theory. How'd you find out about this anyway?" Omoi questioned.

"It's not a theory! I was told by... a dead Hokage who... appeared in my head."

The three Kumo ninja stared at him like he was crazy.

"Naruto!"

Naruto looked down through the buildings Rasengan created hole to see four annoyed looking Leaf Ninja looking up at him; Sakura, Kakashi, Kiba, Akamaru and Sai.

"Naruto... we need to talk..."

* * *

**END CHAPTER 3**

**AUTHORS NOTES**

The idea behind this chapter was for Naruto to state his intentions and once again be sure of himself while giving Samui a reason to be unsure. There will be a lot more action in the fourth chapter.

This story isn't in danger of dying, if it was I would post a warning about it on my authors page and let someone else adopt the story.


	4. Shock

**COLD 4 SHOCK**

**August 1st 2011**

**AUTHORS NOTES**

**AU of Manga chapter 452 onwards- A very different meeting between Naruto and Team Samui creates a different reaction from Naruto.**

**This fic is a Naruto/Samui pairing, Drama/Humor/(kinda) Romance fic.**

**'_This_' means someone is thinking.**

**Italics alone means the name of something, i.e. _Jinchuriki, Katon Jutsu_.**

**Horizontal ruler (a line across the page) means a page break or timeskip, may be a few minutes, may be a few hours...**

**-X- means a scene change, i.e. we start with Sakura and Sai in a clearing, then we go to Naruto and Samui in her apartment- a scene change from a street to an apartment.**

**This story started out simply as Naruto/Samui smut. Later I came up with the idea of using the background to look more deeply at Naruto's childish (and often deluded) outlook on the world, his delusions regarding Sasuke and his dysfunctional relationships in general. This is meant to be dramatic as well as kinky and humorous.**

**Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto or any of the characters or ideas involved. This is non profit-I am making no money from this.**

* * *

"What... did... you just say... Sakura-chan?" Naruto stood in the snow with shock on his face. The gathered ninja stood around with various looks on their faces; Kiba and Kakashi looked bored, Lee looked astonished, Yamato looked like he'd just stepped in some dog shit, Karui and Omoi looked amused (both expecting a catfight). Samui looked annoyed.

"What I said, Naruto... is that I love you!"

_'That's the most unconvincing thing I've ever heard!'_ Samui became increasingly annoyed as she lost the next two minutes of her life listening to the pink haired ninja regurgitate a speech involving feelings, distances, people, hearts and weather, topped off by the most awkward hug she'd ever seen.

_'At least get enough contact to feel each other's body heat you amateur!'_

Nobody bought the act, not even Naruto. His angry response caused Sakura's true purpose to become clear to all; she had come to remove her reckless team mate from harm's way.

'_Well at least I can give the pink idiot credit for trying to get Naruto out of danger- even though she's done it in an incompetent and embarrassing way.' _Samui criticised in her head.

She saw a tattooed, feral looking young man whisper in Sakura's ear- it must have been something the pinkette didn't want to hear because she stomped on his foot possibly breaking toes. She stormed off like a little girl throwing a temper tantrum. "Fine! I'm going home!"

_'Yes, you do that.'_ Samui almost said aloud. Unknowingly she had edged slightly closer to Naruto during the argument.

"What? No cat fight?" Karui groused ignoring an annoyed stare from the rest of the group.

* * *

"Sai...what are you doing here?"

A few minutes had passed since the irate Sakura had stormed off followed by Kakashi, Kiba, Akamaru and Sai. Except that Sai seemed to be back.

"I'm a clone. I need to tell you the truth that Sakura couldn't tell you. She didn't come here to confess her feelings to you-"

"Really? I was completely captivated and moved by her truly heartfelt words." Karui rudely interrupted.

Sai ignored the Kumo Nin but wondered what she and her comrades were even doing there.

"Konoha has chosen to eliminate Sasuke. It's been decided by the Hokage, the Jonin council and even by your classmates."

Naruto couldn't bring himself to be shocked by this news. Technically Sasuke had declared himself a traitor three years ago when he defected to Orochimaru. He had dug himself an even deeper hole when he attacked the 'Rescue team' sent two and a half years later. Joining an organisation that had committed acts of war and terror against all nations of the Elemental lands (including Konoha) was the final straw- Sasuke had to die, and to maintain what little credibility the Leaf had left it had to be them that dealt the killing blow.

There simply was no choice now.

Sai continued; "She thought she'd lessen your burden by giving up on Sasuke and claiming to love you. She probably thought you didn't want to hear the truth."

"Hmm... I wonder how far she'd go to convince Naruto..." Omoi mused completely ignoring the polite conventions of society.

"Hand job, maybe once in the sack. I don't see her going beyond lame vanilla- aack!" Karui suffered a slap upside the head from Samui cutting off her lewd spiel.

Naruto looked downtrodden, apparently oblivious to the critique on his team mate.

_'We're lucky he seemed to have zoned out again... I don't need another fight.'_ Samui didn't want to bail her team mates out again.

"And there's something else... I think Sakura herself is planning to kill Sasuke."

Everyone reacted in astonishment and disbelief.

"What is she crazy? That... nurse can't fight that powered up freak. It's like a pink, emotionally frail goldfish picking a fight with a pumped-up, yet effeminate shark."

"Why the hell are you here again?" Yamato shouted in Karui's ear nearly bowling her over.

"We're watching the happy couple." Omoi gestured towards something before getting the second slap upside the head of the day from Samui.

Before things could degenerate further, three newcomers leapt in; Godaime Kazekage Gaara, Jonin elemental specialist Temari and Puppetmaster Kankuro.

_'The Kazekage and his siblings... I'll take anything over this...'_ Samui thought as the three groups of ninja stared each other down.

**-X-**

**Not far away...**

"You'd take a hostage... after your talk of self sacrifice?"

Uchiha Sasuke, Shimura Danzo and the Kunoichi known as Karin stood on the wreckage of _Mumei bridge_. Scars of the battle were everywhere.

Sasuke's whole body had been damaged by his reckless use of the Kinjutsu known as _Susanoo_; he was trembling and spasming, he struggled to grip his _Chokuto_ blade, a few strands of his hair fell out. His skin felt like it was burning while his innards felt like freezing. Multiple cuts on his body weren't healing- in fact they seemed to widen and bleed more profusely.

Danzo was also hurting- he'd lost an arm; it had mutated out of control and become a tree. They don't prescribe Painkillers for that.

The leader of Root now hid behind a squirming human shield he clutched with his remaining arm.

"It's... not my own life... I'm worried about..." Danzo gasped out, truly sounding on death's door. "This is for Konoha... for the ninja world... I can't die now..."

His mismatched eyes changed, becoming fanatical rather than the cold focus he had maintained up until now. "I'll... do anything... to survive... I... am the only one... who can change this world..." He gasped out.

"This girl will be sacrificed for that." He straightened up as he said those words. His whole life was about sacrifice.

"Sasuke... help!" Karin squealed around Danzo's near choking grip on her throat.

"Don't move... Karin." The Kunoichi felt relieved at those words.

'_No doubt Sasuke's about to unleash some super Jutsu he's been hiding for such an occasion.'_

Those were the last thoughts she ever had before she was impaled by her hero's Chidori sharp spear; the blade of electricity pierced through her heart killing her instantly. Sasuke didn't have enough chakra left to drive the attack through the woman then straight through Danzo, however the voltage striking out from the Jutsu flowed through him, burning the Root leader internally, damaging nerves, heating his blood to dangerous levels and rupturing organs.

"Karin... you're nothing but a burden to me if you can be taken hostage so easily..." The dead Kunoichi couldn't hear him, it was impossible to say if her deranged, blood soaked killer understood that. The corpse of the former Oto Ninja fell, lifelessly, her stylish glasses shattering upon hitting the stone bridge floor face first.

Danzo stood unmoving. For a moment it looked like the bandaged, enhanced Ninja would continue the monstrous battle.

**SKLUUTCCCHHH!**

Suddenly his chest exploded in blood and ink. Four sets of blocky seals erupted from his hideously warped body.

Uchiha Madara instantly knew what the obscene spectacle was; "Get away from Danzo! This is the _Ura Shishou Fuuin Jutsu!_" Sasuke leapt back best he could with his wounds while Madara phased through the floor as the space before them was torn asunder by the Reverse Four Symbols Sealing Technique...

**-X-**

**A few miles away...**

In the nearby forest, curiously void of snow, four ninja raced through the dense foliage.

"Don't you think you should have told Naruto the truth?" Rock Lee asked.

Sakura didn't waver. "There's no way I could tell him. He'd never understand why we have to do this."

"You underestimate Naruto... he's- gnnn!" Kakashi stumbled to the ground pressing a hand down over his left eye in clear pain.

"Are you all right?" Sakura asked moving in to give aid.

The copy Ninja held up a hand- telling Sakura to keep her distance. "I'm just tired... and an old injury's acting up..." _'It's getting worse... overusing the Mangekyo Sharingan during the battle with Pain... and the fact that my body isn't designed for this power in the first place...'_

Kiba turned away from the clearly in pain Kakashi. He took several sniffs of the air to confirm what he already knew; "I've found Sasuke. That mask guy is there too. That direction. One kilometre ahead." He pointed to an unseen destination.

Sakura made her move. She knew what had to be done...

**-X-**

**Mumei bridge...**

Uchiha Madara looked around at the destruction Danzo's last gambit had wrought; his jutsu had created a sphere of blackness, everything within the sphere had been absorbed into Danzo's mutated, mutilated corpse to share its fate; death.

"That jutsu would have sucked you into his corpse to die with him... he must have set it to go off when he died. That wa- aaccckkk!" Madara froze and began to shake. The heavy trembling became violent convulsions.

"What's wrong?" Sasuke asked not really caring.

"Nothing- bad food earlier." The masked man disappeared in a swirl of reality with Danzo's corpse before Sasuke could probe further- the elder Uchiha knew Sasuke would kill him if he knew how weak he actually was. The ancient Uchiha reappeared in a very different place...

Uchiha Madara now stood in the sterile half laboratory- half morgue within _Sangaku no Hakaba (the Mountains' Graveyard) _that he called his sanctuary. He removed his gaudy orange mask to breathe easier.

He grimaced in anger as he saw in the reflection of highly polished metal, the reminders of his battle with the First Hokage; his original right arm had been torn clear off, his once handsome face had been carved up leaving a mess of scars and stitches to be hidden by various masks through the years. Most unforgivable of all, his priceless left eye was pierced and later gouged out by the unnatural, seeking vines of Senju Hashirama...

Pushing aside the painful memories, Madara found what he came for; he stumbled to a large, dark grey construct that looked like a coffin.

He opened it to reveal a human in an induced coma lying as motionless as a corpse. The unconscious figure was wrapped from head to toe in medicated bandages covered in sealing script, a breathing mask supplied air while IV drips supplied nourishment. Besides the sound of breathing there was no way to tell the human form was alive.

Using specialised syringes and pumps built into the coffin he extracted chakra and blood from the long time captive. The material was mixed together inside a solidly reinforced steel and glass syringe in a proverbial Witches brew that had kept Madara alive despite huge injuries and advanced age.

"You've increased the dosage. That's dangerous." A voice called out.

Madara cursed as he didn't sense Zetsu's entrance.

"This serum is the only thing keeping me alive. Leave, watch over Sasuke." He commanded.

"If you say so." The bizarre plant man disappeared into the floor.

He pressed the syringe into his neck and stiffened in pain as the potentially lethal mix entered his system.

It felt like every cell in his body was about to explode, that his skin would burn away, his muscles would burst, his bones snap again and again until they were as unrecognisable as his face. His vision cut out, blurring into blinding light, his brain felt like it was on fire- all thought except the agony disappeared.

If he could think beyond the pain he would be glad Zetsu had left to watch over Sasuke and wasn't here to hear his deafening scream of agony...

**-X-**

Gaara and his bodyguards/sibling had left after informing Naruto of the latest act of Sasuke's 'dig the deepest grave possible for myself' crusade; by murdering several Samurai guards and assaulting the Gokage, Sasuke had just committed acts of war against the lands of Lightning, Earth, Water, Wind and Iron. There truly was no option but to dispose of the rampaging Uchiha now.

"I'm going after Sasuke! He's still in the area, he's weakened and has to be taken down before he hurts anyone else."

"I will go with you." Samui stated.

"Naruto has to return to the village." The killjoy known as Yamato insisted.

"I'll go with Naruto alone. You need a witness to prove Konoha's commitment to eliminate Uchiha Sasuke." Samui figured that Yamato didn't like the two on three odds and didn't trust Kumo Ninja not to wait until he and Naruto had weakened themselves against Sasuke then opportunistically move in and finish them.

"I agree. Let me do this Yamato-teichou."

Yamato had a bad feeling about this, but trusted his judgement in Naruto.

"All right. I'll stay at the Inn with... these two." He just about suppressed a grimace at the thought of being left alone with Samui's irritating comrades.

As Naruto and Samui took off, the Wood user took one last sneaking look at the departing busty blond trying to figure out what she was actually up to, and if Naruto would be able to deal with it.

_'It'll be fine... Naruto's come a long way, and he's smarter than anyone thinks... hell, a bigger concern is avoiding a fight with these two I've been left with... I should be able to do it as long as they keep their mouths shut.'_

"Why are you staring at my Captain's ass?" Karui's annoying voice called out.

_'Goddammit!'_

**-X-**

Naruto raced through the forest using Sage mode to track Sakura's chakra. Samui following by his side. She was curious about the physical transformation and abilities he had revealed but knew not to ask. Things were... complicated with the blond Leaf ninja at the moment, and she didn't want those complications spilling over into her duty as a Kunoichi of Kumogakure.

Naruto grimaced as he sensed a dark, twisted, corrupted chakra pulsing violently. It didn't even feel human. Sakura's brighter, steadier chakra was heading straight towards it-alone.

_'It must be Sasuke overusing some Kinjutsu he got from Orochimaru! But where the hell is Kakashi-sensei and the others?'_

"We have to move faster! Sakura's closing in on Sasuke!" His sensor jutsu cut off as he spent the last of his Nature chakra, he couldn't stop to gather more so focused on moving forwards at faster speeds- so fast he left the woman following him behind.

"Wait! Don't go in there alone!"

**-X-**

Sakura's plan to deal with Sasuke flashed before her eyes;

Her improvised plan had been going so well; she had had left her comrades behind- she was actually astonished she had managed to take out Kakashi-sensei with her knockout gas.

'_He must not have recovered from the fight with Pain... he was complaining about headaches earlier...'_

Of course all her planning had faltered when she actually found Sasuke...

"Sasuke-kun..." Sakura's eyes widened as she sensed the hatred radiating off the ravaged, bloodsoaked Uchiha like a blinding, suffocating mist with crushing weight.

'_It doesn't feel like the old Sasuke-kun... Is this really the same person?'_

"Why have you come before me this time?" Sasuke demanded like some angry warlord talking down to a worthless peasant.

"Sasuke-kun..." She stuttered. "I- I'm abandoning Konoha... and coming with you."

"You wouldn't gain anything by following me... what are you plotting?"

"I'm not plotting anything... I- I've always regretted not going with you when you left Konoha!"

Sasuke stared at her unconvinced.

_'Dammit does anyone believe my acts?'_

"I'll do whatever you want me to do. I don't want to have any more regrets..."

Sasuke stared at her, bloody eyes narrowing in rage. "Do you know... what I want? I want to destroy Konoha! That's what I want..."

Bright green eyes widened as Sakura fully realized who- what was really standing before her.

"Would you really betray Konoha for me?"

"...Yes... if... you say so..." Sakura stammered.

A sword was driven into Sakura's gut.

"You're a lousy liar."

The impaled girl changed colours, melted into a trickle of brown muck.

_'A Mud Clone? Why didn't I see it? I didn't see it! My vision is degrading!'_

The real Sakura burst out of the ground. Sasuke leapt back amused by the attack despite the agony racing through his body.

"I'm here to stop you Sasuke!" The pink haired medic declared.

Sasuke smirked. Not the confident (some would say arrogant) smirk Sakura remembered, but mad looking.

"You? Stop? Me? Don't be absurd." In his eyes the girl was more of a joke than Naruto; at least he had the Kyuubi and massive chakra to compensate for his various shortcomings. This... cheerleader... this glorified nurse... had nothing.

Sakura clearly didn't agree, she hurled smoke bombs to the ground in front of her, hiding her in blinding black smoke.

Standing his ground awaiting her (no doubt pitiful) attack, Sasuke actually felt insulted. _'She thinks she can fight me alone? How insulting...'_

**THOOM!**

A massive explosion erupted from the smoke. For a millisecond Sasuke thought Sakura had tried to Kamikaze him with a vest of explosives and screwed it up. This thought stopped as he was launched into the air as the earth beneath him exploded.

His eyes zeroed in on pink hair as Sakura- standing in what appeared to be a crater- the centre of the destruction, hurled kunai with letter bombs attached. Sasuke knocked the projectiles out of the air with shuriken squinting to see the blurry projectiles.

He looked back at Sakura and realised he'd lost track of her in the split second needed to deal with the bombs.

The Uchiha felt a presence to his left and turned to see his former team mate charging him with an impressive amount of chakra charged up to strike.

'_She's actually trying to kill me...'_

Sakura suddenly stopped. She drove her fist into the ground shattering the stone for meters in all direction like cheap glass, the shockwaves from the punch knocked Sasuke off balance. Sakura threw more kunai at him- this time her opponent neutralised the projectiles using _Chidori Nagashi_- the Uchiha cursed at being forced to use advanced Jutsu on such an inferior opponent.

'_So that's her game. Knock me off balance with a power punch then use explosives to take me out from a distance.'_

He charged Sakura, intending to strike before she could activate another punch. He would have used Genjutsu but Sakura was avoiding direct eye contact with him, no doubt to avoid the Sharingan's hypnotic effect- assuming he could use it- using Susanoo had damaged his eyes so badly he couldn't even see clearly anymore.

Sakura swung at him with another punch, and missed, Sasuke's blade went straight through her neck.

Again, Sakura collapsed into mud.

'_This bitch is annoying me now. I really hate people who spam clones!'_

Sasuke turned, seeing Sakura standing holding up a piece of paper- that exploded in a blinding light.

"YAAAAHHH!" Even with his eyes ability to pick up light badly diminished the pain was extraordinary, like someone had driven red hot daggers into both eyes and twisted when the points pierced into his brain.

Fighting through the agony, the blinded Uchiha lashed out with his Chidori Current believing Sakura would throw more explosives at her. Instead she threw poison gas bombs at him. The Uchiha heard the distinctive sound of the poison containers exploding and hissing.

Sakura saw Sasuke take a breath of her poison and begin shuddering and choking. She stood watching, her heart breaking as her former crush collapsed and shuddered in pain as the lethal substance collected in his lungs.

"I'm so sorry Sasuke." She pulled out her Tanto and charged at Sasuke wanting to end him painlessly.

The Uchiha turned right at Sakura. The trembling and gasping stopped.

Sakura froze as she felt something sharp and cold pierce her chest tearing through muscles, and bone and entering her heart.

"You're still annoying..."

Those were the last words Haruno Sakura heard as she died with the blade of the one she once loved piercing through her body.

* * *

**END PART 4**

**AUTHORS NOTES**

Big departure from canon here; Karin (who I consider a pointless character) is dead, Sakura is dead. The story will increasingly deviate from canon from here on out.

The purpose behind this chapter is set up for future chapters. Part of this is to portray a dark and violent world where people actually die in battles- which has been hard to believe in the current manga since the Mass resurrection no jutsu at the end of the Pain arc.

You may be wondering why Kakashi didn't make it to the fight. Originally I intended for Sasuke and Kakashi to face one another in battle; Sasuke and his Chidori variants, versus Kakashi and Raikiri variants I created for this fic. I abandoned this idea when I couldn't find a plausible and satisfying way to explain Sasuke fighting five Kage level Ninja (even though he'd be dead several times over if Gaara, Zetsu and Madara hadn't interfered).

Kakashi's degenerating Mangekyo Sharingan- the idea originated from finding a way to explain how Kakashi could be taken out by Sakura (it could never happen if he was 100%). Kakashi's condition in this fic is that he is going blind in his left eye and is suffering severe chakra network and nervous damage.

I skipped most of the Danzo/Sasuke fight because it isn't relevant to the story (it is a Naruto/Samui story in the end). That, and I am not and will never, write the nonsense known as Izanagi (several other examples of Sharingan Godmodding won't enter this story as well).

Samui isn't going to get sucked into a giant Gourd like in canon (that was one of the most blatant examples of fridging I've ever seen). The Gold and Silver Bros probably won't even appear. The zombie army probably will though.

Samui will take part in the upcoming training arc. It won't resemble the one in canon- I didn't like Naruto meeting his mother and finding out he descended from a clan who were Ninja royalty, with a unique combat style, connections to the line of Hokage (on both sides of his family) and what essentially was a Kekkei Genkai. I've read too many mediocre fanfics where that was the plotline- after Naruto stumbled across a scroll left carelessly (and conveniently) lying around.


	5. Dark Horizon

**COLD 5- DARK HORIZON  
**

**OCTOBER 8th 2011**

**AUTHORS NOTES**

**AU of Manga chapter 452 onwards- A very different meeting between Naruto and Team Samui creates a different reaction from Naruto.**

**This fic is a Naruto/Samui pairing, Drama/Humor/(kinda) Romance fic.**

**'**_**This**_**' means someone is thinking.**

**Italics alone means the name of something, i.e. **_**Jinchuriki, Katon Jutsu**_**.**

**Horizontal ruler (a line across the page) means a page break or timeskip, may be a few minutes, may be a few hours...**

**-X- means a scene change, i.e. we start with Sakura and Sai in a clearing, then we go to Naruto and Samui in her apartment- a scene change from a street to an apartment.**

**Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto or any of the characters or ideas involved. This is non profit-I am making no money from this.**

* * *

Sasuke let Sakura's corpse hang on his blade a few moments. Then he pulled it out of her, letting the dead medic fall face first into the river.

The Uchiha would have boasted more, but his pride had taken a hit; this... weak girl had put him on the defensive, had blinded him, had forced him to lower himself to playing dead, and she might have actually killed him if she had known that Orochimaru had performed Kinjutsu on him that rendered most poisons useless against him.

"Well, she put up quite an impressive fight... I thought she'd just stand around, cry, maybe have a few flashbacks..." The rasping voice of Black Zetsu commented from out of nowhere.

Sasuke noticed the bizarre being. He collapsed before he could put the freak in his place.

Reality came undone as Madara warped in. He looked down at Sasuke- who looked like he just went through a hedge backwards, after being raked across burning hot coals and being repeatedly bitchslapped.

"I thought I told you to get some rest."

Zetsu (the white side of him) cut in; "The Kyubi Jinchuriki is coming, time to leave."

Arrogant as he was, Madara knew he wouldn't be able to handle the explosion of _Youki_ and sheer destruction that would occur when Naruto saw the corpse of his friend floating in the river.

Not waiting to hear protests from Sasuke, Madara warped the barely conscious teenager out of the area. The younger Uchiha could barely see the distortions of space time as he was seemingly absorbed- his vision had deteriorated so much he had almost completely lost the light...

_'I need new eyes...'_ He thought.

**-X-**

Naruto burst out from the forest. He reached out with his Sage powers... and sensed no one in range.

_'Did they teleport off to-'_

He saw a red and pink form sticking out of the water. He sensed nothing from it. He ran towards it his mind blank. He pulled Sakura from face down in the water and stared first at the wound in her chest, then at her face; frozen in horror, eyes unseeing.

"She shouldn't have got in the way."

Naruto's head shot up towards the voice. Standing not twenty feet in front of him was Uchiha Sasuke; immaculate except for the _Chokuto_ covered in dripping red liquid.

Naruto exploded into vile red chakra.

The glowing red Jinchuriki dropped the still warm body of his former crush and charged the smug looking murderer in mindless fury looking to drive his fist through the smug bastards face.

He did; Naruto's superpowered fist smashed through teeth like glass, drove apart the jaw and skull and essentially exploded Sasuke's head sending blood, hair, brain, fragments of bone spraying the area.

Naruto froze, staring into the distance as the headless corpse was sent hurtling into the water spinning end over end.

"Nice punch."

Naruto's head flew to the sound of the voice; Uchiha Sasuke stood there unscathed, and still smug.

And it made Naruto angrier than he had ever been before.

**-X-**

**Not far away...**

"No." Yamato breathed.

"What?" The wood users temporary companion asked.

"...we need to get to Naruto quicker. That's all."

'_Only one tail... it must be due to the Yondaime imprint repairing the seal during the recent eight tail rampage against Pain. I only hope it lasts...'_

Samui stared at the Leaf Ninja knowing he was lying and that they were about to walk into something bad.

**-X-**

Seeing yet another Sasuke, the mindlessly enraged Naruto hurled a kunai at the latest corpse to be.

This time the Sasuke dodged. A scream ripped out from a bush right behind the Uchiha.

Naruto saw everything in slow motion; a woman in rags- a stranger, probably a homeless civilian, staggered out from the bushes clutching her bleeding side- it looked like Naruto's kunai went straight through. She took one more pleading step forward and collapsed.

"Oh, no … I didn't– this is a genjutsu... this is..." Naruto stammered.

A blur from behind caused the shocked Naruto to turn and see a sword streaking towards his face...

**SKLUUTCHHH!**

The figure was skewered on an unnatural rectangular wooden tendril instantly recognisable as the Mokuton Jutsu of Captain Yamato, the busty, apathetic, yet annoyed looking Samui stood next to him.

"These aren't Sasuke." The wood user blandly stated.

He pointed at the figure stuck on his wooden weapon. A pulse of chakra arced through the wood causing 'Sasuke' to spasm as though alive. Moments later a pale, effeminate looking male twisted and reformed into a freakish, chalk white, half faced creature...

"Z-zetsu?" Naruto's head dropped. "Then Sakura's body must be..."

Yamato shook his head. "I'm sorry."

Naruto looked around. In his rage he hadn't noticed that all of the bodies had transformed into Zetsus except the body of Sakura... and the homeless woman he hit with a stray kunai... and was now dead.

* * *

The next couple of days were a blur for Naruto; they never found out the identity of the woman who stumbled into Naruto's fight and so buried her by the side of the river in an unmarked grave. They took Sakura's body back to Konoha for a full shinobi burial. There was a gathering, respectful speeches, apologies and tears from those who knew her and some who knew her just as a bright young Kunoichi.

Naruto didn't cry or break down or seemingly react in any real way to the last rites, just walked through them with no energy or life- it was as though all spirit had left him leaving only a shell of meat and bone. Even the usual rage and desire for revenge that so many people felt in the Shinobi world wasn't present...

* * *

**One day later...  
**

Naruto stood before the _Ogama Sennin_- the Great Toad Sage of _Mount Myoboku_, he had been reverse summoned there while wandering the woods around Konoha in a depressed daze.

He looked up at the gigantic amphibian who wore the most bizarre hat (it had a crystal ball and tassels on it) he had ever seen, wore a necklace with the Kanji for oil on it and sat in a... pool? Throne? Naruto couldn't tell which.

"The reason I called you here was... um... who are you again?"

Naruto groaned in annoyance. After twice being reminded of Naruto's identity by Fukasaku and Shima, the Toad seer spoke of witnessing a vision of the future involving Naruto.

'_Future... why didn't you see Sakura being killed then?' _Naruto darkly thought.

He snapped out of his mood as another toad seemingly broke apart revealing a huge strip of paper with complex sealing script on it; the key to the Yondaime's seal made by Yellow Flash himself.

"This is the final step in completing the Jutsu Jiraiya spoke of." The Toad-Gamatora said.

Naruto stared at the key as though mesmerised.

Gamatora saw his concern; "The Kyubi's power in made up of two parts; its chakra and its will. In order to control the Kyubi you need to draw upon only the chakra and make it yours."

Naruto already knew this from Jiraiya during their time training together.

"But it's not that easy... if you draw on the chakra, the Kyubi's evil will comes with it."

Naruto remembered his experiences of drawing out the Nine Tails power in the past; rampages that threatened all around him.

"No matter how strongly you brace yourself, the Demon spirit will try to take over your mind by clinging to the hatred inside. In other words, in order to control the Kyubi's power, your heart and mind must be strong and completely free of hatred."

Naruto remembered losing control on _Tenchi_ bridge and hurting Sakura, of automatically connecting to the Kyubi when he saw Hinata wounded by Pain and Sakura's corpse in that river in the land of Iron. He thought of how much he hated Sasuke now for all he had done, of Nagato's warning of the war ahead and all the death and pain he'd see there...

"Then... this is impossible... I can't master the Kyubi's power."

He turned and walked away leaving the stunned Toads behind.

**-X-**

A world away, the Gokage (and Mifune of the land of Iron) sat around a circular table talking/arguing.

It was the tactless Tsuchikage- _Ryotenbin no Onoki_ who brought it up; "Where should we hide the Kyubi Jinchuriki? I assume we still haven't found your brother, Raikage?"

The huge Raikage A, was about to throw a violent comeback (as well as the Tsuchikage himself) when Tsunade yelled over him; "We need Naruto's abilities! We shouldn't hide him!"

A wasn't sure whether to be angered or aroused by the woman's violent outburst so he uncharacteristically stayed silent as he watched Tsunade proceed to butt heads with everyone in the room.

'_She desperately needs to unclench.'_ He thought.

Eventually after much shouting, threats and insults it was decided what to do about the Kyubi Jinchuriki Uzumaki Naruto...

* * *

**Two days later...**

On a ship in the Land of Lightning, Naruto stood alone staring into the darkness ahead.

The teenager had been ignoring everyone the last couple of days, giving single word answers to inquiries and support, or ignoring them altogether, taking meals and eating them alone. Spending his time alone in his cabin or elsewhere brooding.

Behind him, Samui watched the depressed, angry and sullen teenager. He hadn't said anything since she spoke to him after his pink haired teammates funeral to tell him she was the Kumogakure representative who would be assisting him and Yamato in increasing Naruto's Jinchuriki abilities and act as liason between the Konoha Jinchuriki and the Raikage. It would have been more effective if Killer Bee, fully realised Jinchuriki of the Hachibi was present to train Naruto but as of yet he hadn't been found (as evidenced by the Raikages more violent than usual temper).

The Kunoichi watched as Naruto once again stood alone on the deck staring into the distance ignoring attempts to talk to him- not that Samui had tried-delicate heart to hearts weren't her forte.

One example of her "people skills" reminded her of she met the Jinchuriki only a week ago; she isolated him, questioned all his beliefs, jumped him, molested him, tied him up, pleasured him in ways the naive young man had never even imagined successfully making him her bitch, then ditched him as he lay naked on the floor.

_'Not the best way to start a working relationship. Then again, I never expected to see him again after the messenger assignment. While I suck (figuratively and literally) at dealing with people... no one else had any success getting through to him again after the messenger assignment.'_

The busty blond wasn't the only one watching Naruto; Yamato had been watching him for several days now concerned over his recent behaviour.

The wood user watched as the Kumo Kunoichi Samui walked over to Naruto, discomfort (while masked) was obvious in her step. Ahead of them he saw their destination; Shimagame, the Island Turtle...

* * *

**END CHAPTER 5  
**

**AUTHORS NOTES**

The training arc will begin next chapter.

Because I think this chapter is a little weak here is a bonus- an excerpt from an upcoming fic ;

**UNTITLED NARUTO/TAYUYA FIC, NOT CLOSE TO FINISHED YET;**

"You can create a hundred solid clones that can physically exert themselves for hours?"

Naruto looked proud of that. "Yeah! They can do all sorts of cool things-" "How physical can they get?" Tayuya demanded.

"Er... they help me generate Rasengan and Rasenshuriken, do wind manip-"

"Do they dispel when they cum?"

"Hmmm, actually I don't think they have a range limit." Naruto responded not understanding Tayuya's meaning.

"I mean can they handle banging a chick... hard?" She asked with a suggestive grin.

"They handle fights well- I use them in every fight I get in..."

Tayuya shuddered in anger. "I mean..." She forced every word out in anger; "Could they last if I roughly screwed the shit out of them?"

Naruto stopped and frowned in clear deep thought; "They can do DIY, I'm pretty good at it. I fix things in my apartment all the time."

Tayuya was so astonished she almost fell out of her chair. "D-D- DIY?"_ 'A hot chick talks to him about sex and he thinks about DIY?'_

"I mean sex you idiot!" She screamed in his face.

All tables turned to look at them. One person looked to be choking on her food.

"What the fuck are you looking at! You better go about your fucking business or I'll start busting heads!" She yelled at the room waving a sauce bottle in fury.

**-X-  
**

**ALSO, OUT NOW;  
**

**BLINDED BY LIGHT... AND OTHER THINGS... FINAL FANTASY XIII FIC  
**

Rosch lifted Lightning into the air and slammed her down onto her kitchen table with a crash. He vaulted up onto the table straddling the pink haired woman. They kissed and groped each other on the table sending plates and glassware crashing to the floor.

"That is... a really cute scar, you got there..." Lightning slurred regarding the nearly vertical scar running the length his forehead. She traced her finger up and down the wound before putting her lips to his head and licking the scar from end to end. In his drunken state Rosch wasn't sure what to make of this.

Lightning (without warning) grabbed Rosch on both sides of his face and shoved him off the table landing on some already broken plates.

Light rolled off after him, violently she kicked the kneeling Rosch in the stomach giggling drunkenly. She went for a second kick which the PSICOM officer caught and used to send her spinning to the floor. She landed on her ass and burst out laughing. She kicked out again at Rosch who again caught the leg, this time using it to drag Lightning out of the kitchen and into her living room (which had no shards from breakages-yet).

Being dragged across the floor Light twisted her body and pulled herself towards Rosch, grabbed his belt and pulled herself up to one leg. While hopping comically she pushed him onto a sofa with a burst of strength. Still on one leg she tore at the PSICOM officer's overcomplicated uniform...


	6. Breakdown

**COLD 6- BREAKDOWN**

**1st January 2012**

**AUTHORS NOTES**

**AU of Manga chapter 452 onwards- A very different meeting between Naruto and Team Samui creates a different reaction from Naruto.**

**'_This_' means someone is thinking.**

**Italics alone means the name of something, i.e. _Jinchuriki, Katon Jutsu_.**

**Horizontal ruler (a line across the page) means a page break or timeskip, may be a few minutes, may be a few hours...**

**-X- means a scene change, i.e. we start with Sakura and Sai in a clearing, then we go to Naruto and Samui in her apartment- a scene change from a street to an apartment.**

**Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto or any of the characters or ideas involved. This is non profit-I am making no money from this.**

* * *

Blue eyes the colour of clear sky, normally cruelly cold, now projected annoyance as the Kumo Kunoichi known as Samui looked straight at Uzumaki Naruto. Or rather at his head, the Konoha Shinobi still wouldn't meet her eyes- his head was hung low in deep depression.

While everyone felt Sakura's tragic and needless death deeply, they all knew the grim truth of relationships in the Shinobi world; they end- often violently- all that could be done was continue as best they could and make sure the dead actually mattered in some way. Not that anyone was going to say this to an unstable _Jinchuriki._ Though Yamato was 'subtly' trying to get Samui to say it for him.

The wood user had already told Naruto their purpose on the island was to take advantage of the locations unique features for training purposes. Naruto's response was simply to continue being cold and unmoving. Yamato could barely believe this was the same kid who bounced off the walls to learn wind manipulation only months earlier.

Ignoring the eighth attempt to get her to 'snap Naruto out of his funk' in one way or another, Samui decided to get straight to business;

"My sensei was Killer B, Jinchuriki of the _Hachibi_, I know much about his training methods..."

"I'm not using the Kyubi's chakra." Naruto muttered.

"So what are you going to use?"

"I'll figure it out. Just leave me alone."

* * *

Samui didn't leave him alone, she spent the next two hours following Naruto around the island;

First Naruto wandered aimlessly,

Then he stared into the distance uselessly,

Then he sat and stared at the sky pointlessly.

After a long and unproductive day everyone turned in for sleep.

Samui writhed uncomfortably trying to get to sleep. She lay on her side; lying on her back caused an uncomfortable pressure as the weight of her breasts pressed down on her chest. Lying on her front nearly suffocated her once.

Samui buried herself in work when things bothered her. People who didn't challenge themselves to overcome problems annoyed her.

_'I need to move past recent doubts about life and the future by focusing on the job. My job is aiding Naruto. And instead the idiot sits around moping reminding me of my problems!'_

Finally her annoyance passed and she slipped off into unconsciousness...

**-X-**

In the dream was an eight year old girl. As she had been doing every day for quite some time now she was sitting on the rope bridge where her father had recently killed himself. Words still clear;

_"Put your emotions aside and to take care of yourself at all costs..."_ The last words of her lousy father before he took his life.

She sat on the bridge holding onto an Academy textbook tightly, like it was a life preserver in a flood.

A shadow covered her, blocking out the warmth of the sun. She didn't react in any way.

Then the most annoying sound she'd ever heard assaulted her ears;

"Yo, why you sittin' a young beauty cruelly hidden, huh?"

The eight year old shuddered, the cringe inducing rapping testing the limits of her tolerance.

The newcomer didn't take the message.

"Quit looking into the past, get moving fast. Ya hear, ya hear?" Samui gritted her teeth, pulled her textbook so tight it bent slightly out of shape. Surely the Raikage wouldn't object if someone cut this idiots tongue out?

"Look to the future, not the past, move on and do it fast-"

"Damn it, will you shut the hell up!" She pulled a blunted training Kunai out and swung at the Jonin Killer B, he dodged it effortlessly and continued to rap, not that Samui heard it as she was too busy screaming murderous insults and death threats at the infuriating Jinchuriki.

An unknown time later the young blond lay on the floor gasping for breath. Killer B sat on a wall not fatigued in the slightest.

"Heh, heh, you're too young to end my song."

"*gasp* I swear *gasp* I will become stronger *gasp* so I can cut your damn tongue out!" She screamed.

**-X-**

Waking up, the adult Samui stared ahead at her room's plain wall in deep thought. _'I was dreaming about... my first meeting with my future sensei. It wasn't long after that I learnt there was always a method behind B sensei's madness...'_ In the case of that dream memory it was to provoke her into action...

She took several deep breaths. Having made a decision in her head, she stood up, got dressed and walked straight out the door...

Straight into Naruto's room.

She was unsurprised as Naruto was still awake, staring at the floor in the same depressing expression she had seen from him the last several days.

Also unsurprisingly, the blond did nothing to acknowledge her presence.

She walked straight up to him; without hesitation she touched Naruto on his shoulder and activated _Gyouko souhou_, a low level _Raiton_ jutsu designed to cause an overload to the sensory and motor nervous systems of the body, effectively paralyzing the target until the effects wear off. The jutsu was generally used for live capture of targets and was at a low enough level for Samui to perform without handseals or any other advanced warning to her intentions.

"GKKK!"

Naruto went stiff as a board (no doubt a lot less pleasurable than the last it happened because of her) and would have hit the floor face first if the young woman hadn't grabbed him and threw him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

Naruto could only look around in fear and bewilderment as he was carried outside into the warm night by a possibly crazed Kunoichi who held the teenaged male on one shoulder with no apparent effort.

**-X-**

Thanks to Kyubi enhanced healing Naruto was soon getting motor control back- first he could move his fingers, soon after he could move his tongue;

"Eeey Aamee wha ya- ooof!" Naruto's mangled speech was cut off by his captor tossing him to the ground roughly.

She stood there looking down on him.

"Stand up!" She demanded.

Naruto wondered what he'd done to make her so angry as the busty Kunoichi looked pissed. He struggled to his feet, still unsteady, his nerves still slightly shot. The Genin heard a sound he knew all to well; hands making seals.

A wave of electricity erupted from Samui's hands- it surged through the grassy ground catching Naruto off guard and sending him flying in a once again disrupted heap.

"Aaarggh! What the- what the hell are you doing?"

"What are you doing? A fourth Shinobi war has been declared. The traitor who murdered your friend is still out there and you want to sit around and mope?"

"That's not..." Naruto didn't know what to say.

"Then what are you doing? If it's nothing productive, nothing to help to end this war, nothing to save lives, then why don't I kill you to stop Madara from getting a hold of the Kyubi and completing his plan?"

Samui pulled her _Tanto_ out; her cold murderous bitch persona was in full effect.

The busty blond reared back with the dagger, engaged a series of one handed seals. The blade in her right hand erupted into a blaze of lightning.

_'That almost looks like Kakashi-sensei's chidori! Not good!'_

Samui stabbed the blade forward; a bolt of lightning lashed out at Naruto who dodged with ease. The feinting shot at least; smaller bolts of lightning erupted from the first, Naruto was in mid air as it lashed out. The chakra infused energy (not bound by the normal rules of electricity due to its chakra component) struck the Genin off guard. Unable to perform Substitution he spasmed in pain as he was electrocuted in mid air.

The sensation of being burned internally lasted only seconds as the original bolt from which the second emerged only lasted seconds.

Despite this Jutsu being clearly more advanced than the first Lightning natured attack he was hit with, Naruto felt very few motor control problems. He struggled to his knees just in time to see Samui charge up to him and knee him in the face; the most uncomfortable panty shot he'd ever received.

Naruto rolled as best he could through the shot to the face and pulled his Kunai on instinct. His blade met the larger Tanto for a moment before the Kunoichi's blade ignited in electricity.

_'Oh come on!'_ Naruto barely got out of the way as his Kunai was shredded by the Tanto, now a high intensity Raiton blade.

He stared into the glowing blade. An image of Sakura's dead body, of the body of Haku, the bandits he'd killed during his training trip with Jiraiya, the slaughtered villagers of Pain's rampage. His heart froze at the thought of at least one more person would die, here, now.

"Nobody is going to die! I won't let that happen." Forming his favourite symbol, Naruto sent a small group of Shadow clones at the attacking Kunoichi.

The lightning disappeared from the Tanto.

_'Is she giving up?'_ The clones wondered.

The accursed Tanto erupted yet again- not into lightning, but flame.

"Oh give me a break!" One of the clones shouted.

Samui swung the flaming blade in the wide arc the _Kumo-Ryu Kaengiri_ was famous for, the clone dozen were swallowed in a flying wave of chakra turned fire that spread for dozens of meters causing destruction on an unholy scale.

The rampaging Kunoichi cut back on the chakra flow to her blade- the inferno shrank to a simple fire on her weapon.

She looked around through the flaming debris, not doubting Naruto was still alive.

**-X-**

Naruto raced through the forest, hoping to escape the crazed Kunoichi. His escape attempts weren't helped by the fact that he didn't know the geography of the island and had to manoeuvre around several oversized, and very dangerous animals.

Neither of these seemed a problem for Samui who found Naruto easily.

"I trained on this island with my sensei! Fight me or die while running in terror!" She yelled at the fleeing blond.

Now highly pissed off, Naruto turned and attacked. For the next couple of minutes the attacking Kunoichi was blitzed from all angles by waves of clones. Annoyed at the insultingly two dimensional attack Samui exterminated the clones using an array of over the top, flashy fire and lightning jutsu before she realised her two mistakes;

One- the Jinchuriki had chakra to waste spamming advanced techniques- she didn't.

Two- she was wasting time killing clones when she should have gone after the Jutsu caster.

She cut power to her blade and took several deep breaths. While she had impressive reserves, her chakra was still a limited commodity. A voice called out from the trees to her left.

"I don't want to fight you." Naruto- the original she suspected for some reason.

"Why?" She demanded at him.

Naruto didn't answer.

She swung another Kumo-Ryu Kaengiri at the Leaf ninja, he duck and rolled under the arc of flame.

"Why?" Samui repeated.

She felt movement to her right, she turned just in time to ID Naruto (another one) kicking her weapon out of her hand. She leapt back as the latest orange clad blond went after her lost Tanto thinking it was the key to her fighting style. His theory was wrong as he was removed from existence by a graze by one out of a dozen fireballs courtesy of _Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu_.

"Why?" Samui yelled over the crackling of the flames all around her.

"Because... I can't... I can't do this! Any of this! Sasuke. The war. Being some kind of messiah! I can't do it!" Naruto rushed the Kunoichi surprising her with his speed.

The pair traded _Taijutsu_. Naruto seemed to be flailing in fury allowing Samui to dodge by retreating. She blocked a wild punch with her forearm- it felt like a sledgehammer hit her- even without demonic chakra running through him his brute strength was impressive. Her rational mind wondered if she could beat him in a fight if he went all out. She doubted it.

"I don't expect you to fight the battles alone. Or single-handedly win a war. Or be anything other than a good ninja. And you are not alone in this." Samui blushed embarrassed. This heart to heart wasn't for her.

Naruto eventually took Samui down with a kick to her midsection that sent her flying and crashing to the ground. He leapt on top of her, straddled her, holding her arms down with his own. Then stopped looking at her furiously, his emotions in turmoil.

"I- I thought... I believed I was what Jiraiya and the Toads said I was... a child of prophecy, a destined messiah. It never occurred to me that I could fail. But I did. Sakura is dead. No jutsu or promise or Nindo is going to change that." He teared up, his tears dropping onto Samui's face who struggled not to let her cold bitch facade break under what she was witnessing.

"No. Nothing is going to change what has happened. But you can stop it from happening again. As long as we are alive, we all have a chance to do better in the future."

Naruto collapsed on top of the trapped Kunoichi, whether through grief, exhaustion from the fight, or both, he collapsed and didn't move.

And she just held him.

* * *

**END CHAPTER 6**

**AUTHORS NOTES**

I decided to put in something about Naruto killing in self defence during the time skip with Jiraiya (I find it implausible that Naruto has gone as long as he has in canon without killing someone).

Killer B is alive in this fic, he's just playing hookie and will show up later on.

Samui isn't overpowered- she's supposed to be a Jonin- meaning an 'elite Ninja', I don't consider someone who knows one cool trick to be an 'elite'.

I wanted the fight between Naruto and Samui to be a battle of freakish power (Naruto) against versatility (Samui), hence her repertoire of flashy Jutsu.

**JUTSU LIST**

**Gyouko souhou (freezing touch), original Jutsu for this story;** a low level Raiton jutsu that transmitted electricity into the enemies body that impedes the neurons of the brain, causing an overload to the sensory and motor nervous systems of the body, effectively paralyzing the target until the effects wear off, the jutsu is generally used for live capture of targets such as enemy ninja with vital information or Kekkei Genkai.

**Raiton: Jibashi (Lightning Release: Electromagnetic murder), canon Jutsu;** this technique allows the user to create a wave of electricity from their hands. The user can vary its power from a small surge to shock and stun an opponent, to a powerful stream of lightning capable of ripping through solid rock and causing instant death in the target.

**Raiton: Nijiteki kyouryou dageki (literally Secondary bridge strike), original Jutsu for this story;** the user fires a bolt of lightning at an opponent, if the opponent dodges (which is very possible since the Jutsu requires a visible charge up time), secondary smaller bolts of lightning strike out from the sides of the first- the idea is to catch the opponent in mid air and paralyse him setting him up for a killing blow (although some ninja are powerful enough to make the secondary strikes instantly lethal, Samui can't).

**Raiton: Kasui (Lightning release: Stream), mostly canon jutsu;** a Jutsu which allows the user to channel their lightning element chakra into a bladed weapon, creating a vibrating frequency and increasing its piercing and cutting power to extraordinary levels.

**Kumo-Ryu Kaengiri (Cloud style Flame beheading),** **canon jutsu used by Samui's brother Atsui;** a fire style Jutsu, the user first imbues their blade with fire, then slashes in the direction of the enemy, resulting in the creation of large arcs of intense flame that follow the trajectory of the sword swing. This jutsu lacks penetrating power but is capable of offence and defence at mid range simultaneously; creating circular walls of flames, incinerating multiple targets even if they simultaneously approach from numerous angles.

**Katon: Hosenka No Jutsu (Literally Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique), canon Jutsu;** a volley of small fireballs that are sent at an opponent in an unpredictable pattern, used here because I didn't want Samui to look like a one trick pony with only sword based Jutsu.


	7. Maelstrom

**COLD PART 7- MAELSTROM  
**

**1st August 2012**

**AUTHORS NOTES**

**AU of Manga chapter 452 onwards- A very different meeting between Naruto and Team Samui creates a different reaction from Naruto.**

**Apologies for the extreme length between chapters for this story.  
**

**'_This_' means someone is thinking.**

**Italics alone means the name of something, i.e. _Jinchuriki, Katon Jutsu_.**

**Horizontal ruler (a line across the page) means a page break or timeskip, may be a few minutes, may be a few hours...**

**-X- means a scene change, i.e. we start with Sakura and Sai in a clearing, then we go to Naruto and Samui in her apartment- a scene change from a street to an apartment.**

**Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto or any of the characters or ideas involved. This is non profit-I am making no money from this.**

* * *

"**RRRAAAHH!**"

Uzumaki Naruto roared in animalistic fury as he charged the Cloud Kunoichi Samui with violent intention. While he may as well have tried intimidating an icecube, he did succeed in overwhelming the busty Kunoichi with speed and force in the opening Taijutsu exchange.

"You have impressive strength and speed, good reflexes too." She noted aloud. "I don't need to know about your... stamina."

Naruto flushed and tried hard to ignore the head games as they duelled. The slapping sound of Samui's breasts against her arms didn't help. Naruto created a trio of shadow clones. They rushed their enemy from different angles while the real Naruto disappeared using a brief Shunshin, reappearing mere inches away from Samui's face, strangely pleased at the look of alarm there.

Another exchange of Taijutsu took place which saw the Kumo nin forced back by Naruto's greater power and speed. He managed to get a shot in on Samui's stomach knocking the wind out of her. She barely dodged a follow up shot. He wasn't pulling any punches.

Using a Shunshin of her own, Samui retreated and reconsidered strategy. Deciding to turn to her substantial Ninjutsu reserves, the Kunoichi flipped through seals and unleashed an old favourite of hers; _Raiton: Nijiteki kyouryou dageki_.

The jutsu wasn't as successful as their last encounter; the bolt of lightning bent away from Naruto who had his hands clasped together and he clearly wasn't praying.

_'Futon; Reppusho, he's a Wind Element then...'_

The blast of wind sent the arc of lightning lashing about wildly forcing its caster to leap out of the way to avoid the agony (and embarrassment) of being blasted by her errant attack.

Naruto pressed his attack; building on the wind already generated to create a jutsu similar to a crude _Daitoppa_ or weak _Atsugai_- the result was strong enough to send the imbalanced Samui spinning through the air like a kite in a hurricane.

'_But the problem with Wind jutsu is...'_

Naruto's eyes bugged out almost comically as the airborne Kunoichi exhaled a boulder-sized sphere of flame that absorbed his wind chakra, grew to an immense size and picked up speed as it hurtled towards the astonished Leaf Ninja.

'_Fuck! I created a Goddamn meteor!'_ Naruto screamed in his head.

The wind assisted fire jutsu hit the earth resulting in an explosion that looked truly catastrophic.

Shielding herself with her arms from the shockwave Samui could only think; _'That might not have been the correct jutsu to use in a spar...'_

**-X-**

Naruto had survived the explosion- how she didn't know. But his orange jumpsuit was in ruins (an accomplishment which Samui took bizarre pride in). Naruto went on the attack again, clearly angered by nearly being incinerated.

The leaf Ninja attacked with an arsenal of wind jutsu unleashed by clones; he had learned many low and mid level ones during the training to create the _Rasenshuriken_ (it would have been pretty stupid to go through all that pain, sweat and tears for one jutsu).

Incinerating several clones by igniting their own wind jutsu and sending it back on them Samui was blinded for a brief moment by the searing flames. The real Naruto exploited the moment by Yakuza kicking the Kunoichi across the clearing. She flipped through the attack landing gracefully (other than her breasts bouncing up and nearly hitting her in the face) on her feet. Suddenly her body froze- her limbs no longer obeyed her commands to move.

'_I can't move... some kind of paralysis Jutsu?' _

Naruto stepped up to her smiling triumphantly. He pointed down at his opponent's feet, alarmed icy blue eyes followed and she saw her left foot was on top of some kind of seal formula.

"A _Kugiri_ seal, one of a lot of sealing Jutsu I learnt from the pervy Sage. Don't know why I haven't used much of it until now..." He rubbed his head and smiled nervously.

"You win." She admitted.

A long moment passed.

"You can release me now."

Naruto looked at her; she was bent over slightly giving him a magnificent look down her top, and her impractically short skirt rode up high on her powerful thigh. "I don't know. I kinda like you like this." He sounded dangerously smug.

Samui twitched.

"I'm mean, you're not trying to kill me or, you know, do other things to me..." He blushed and got a distinctly perverted look in his eyes.

Samui shuddered in rage at the idea of being trapped immobile where any perverted idiot could gawk at her.

"Naruto." She began in what started as a sweet voice. "Release this jutsu now, or when I get free later I will cut your balls off, inject them with the most pain inducing poison I know of and then feed them to you." She growled.

Naruto sweated in panic. "Okay, okay!" He released the seal and watched as she dusted herself down, adjusted her clothing and composed herself.

He decided he liked the look of anger in the Kunoichi's eyes and wanted to see it again- _'Without having fire and lightning thrown at me of course.'_

**-X-**

Samui was impressed- although from what she had gathered from various sources, this level of power wasn't anywhere near enough to have defeated the monstrosity known as Pain.

_'He must have used the Kyubi's chakra to win... if all goes well the war should be fought and won without Naruto ever getting involved. But just in case, he needs to be prepared, which right now he isn't.'_

She wracked her brain looking for suggestions on improvement. She hadn't done the teacher thing before- unless babysitting four year olds for infuriating D-ranked missions counted...

"When you want to become stronger... you have to have someone to teach you..." A slight clenching a fist was the only tell of how lame her statement was.

_'Brilliant. Way to state the obvious.' _

"I'm... willing to help you along the way, but I can only show you... the way."

_'This speech is getting worse.' _

"You have to walk it on your own." _'Damn it how preachy and condescending am I sounding?'_

She saw him looking at her, confused by her words- and possibly agreeing that she sounded lame and preachy.

"In order to become stronger, you have to find your own style. By learning or copying another, you might become powerful, but to actually reach your whole potential you have to find your own style. You need to learn from other styles and incorporate them to create a new unique style."

_'That makes sense- although I think I used the word style too many times.'_

"Alright, makes sense. I don't want to be a clone of someone else anyway." Naruto nodded.

"I won't be able to teach you many things, but I will be able to at least give you a few hints for your training."

Naruto smiled widely at Samui, she noticed for the first time that his teeth were almost freakishly big and white. He had a new excitement in his eyes that made the normally stoic Kunoichi feel weird.

"We have a lot to do." He declared.

Taking a deep breath he built up his chakra- it was a massive buildup, likely visible miles away...

**-X-**

Naruto bolted through the forest using the Leaf splitting exercise to slice through leaves he had collected in a bag while a certain blond Kunoichi chased him taking swings at him with a still sheathed Tanto. Slicing through the leaves whilst running and dodging obstacles was a lot harder than doing it standing still due to the split of focus.

At the beginning of the exercise, Naruto dodged his "partner's" swings but couldn't cut through the leaves in his hands. Later when Naruto focused on the leaves Samui bashed him with her sheathed (but still painful via blunt force trauma) weapon. Eventually however he sliced through the leaves and avoided being whacked by his merciless fellow blond.

**-X-**

Naruto sliced through a rock (disintegrated it really) with the _Fuuton Rasengan_, he remembered something he'd thought earlier; _'The Jutsu is more destructive than the normal Rasengan but isn't actually anything new... not in the way Sasuke modified Kakashi-sensei's chidori to make those variants...' _A flash of rage struck Naruto, he beat it down. _'I won't become like him, but I will learn from him and grow stronger...'  
_

**-X-**

Naruto sliced through a large rock with a wind blade emanating from his Kunai. He looked at the damage and saw that the boulder wasn't separated in a smooth cut as it was supposed to...

"Wind means precision slicing. You have to get this right to master and use Fuuton at its best..." Samui tutored reciting from a book she had hidden.

**-X-**

Four Naruto's concentrated as wind chakra and standard chakra merged to form a new version of the Rasenshuriken as Samui stood a safe distance away and advised Naruto of imbalances in the energy flow.

**-X-**

In Sage mode Naruto drove his fist through a boulder reducing it to pebbles and dust,

_'Absorbing and harnessing nature energy is getting easier now- I'm taking it in faster and can use it in more ways...'_ He had recently spoken to Fukasaku and the elder Toad had spoken of levels of Senjutsu that even he hadn't mastered- such as giving life to the lifeless. The Toads wouldn't even speak to him of the basic theory of such things until he had fully mastered what he already had been shown.

**-X-**

Naruto and several clones struggled to contain a spherical ball of wind emitting bright light and a noise like a never ending bell tone. Samui noticed cuts and burn on his hands and arms then the painfully wide smile on his face.

'_Masochist. Explains a lot.'_

**-X-**

Days passed as endless amounts of Shadow Clones, trees and boulders exploded under the assault of wind blades, glowing spheres and Senjutsu enhanced strikes.

Through it all Naruto seemed reinvigorated; the weight of misery that had dragged him down recently seemed gone- or at least a lot lighter.

Through the agonizing training Samui helped with pointers, advice... and a lot of criticism.

"You're putting too much chakra into it..."

"Don't go charging in like that!"

"How do you plan on defeating Kage level ninja with such predictable attacks?"

"Do you even know how to manipulate chakra?"

"Another Rasengan. Are you using the giant balls of destruction to compensate for something?"

"I expected better from you... "

Samui saw Naruto's teeth grinding, but continued lecturing him; her voice annoying people was nothing new to her.

Naruto had never hit a girl- something he was very proud of- but Samui? In a disturbingly dark and malicious moment he considered tossing the Kunoichi off the island and seeing if she could swim... or if her breasts acted as a type of floatation device as a nameless cloud ninja had crudely suggested...

Naruto stared at the Kunoichi in question's enormous chest wondering if they actually did have a practical purpose in battle as they bounced wildly as she practiced a technique he hadn't seen before; it looked to be a Shunshin into an enhanced slash attack. While Naruto wasn't an expert on the body flicker technique, it looked like she was trying to take the chakra backlash from the high speed jutsu and redirect it into some kind of high intensity Raiton blade attack.

Naruto saw Samui practicing and failing the move. He felt amused at the usually stoic Kunoichi's irritation.

"Aren't you supposed to be perfect?" He asked.

"No one is. I'm trying and need to improve like everyone else." She flatly replied.

Naruto respected that.

'_Maybe I won't toss her off the island...'_

**"RAWWWRRR!"** The deafening roar hit as the world shook like an earthquake.

"The hell? Earthquake?" Naruto yelled dodging debris from the oversized trees. Dying in battle was one thing- being crushed by supersized acorns- that was just insulting.

"No. The island's under attack!" Samui yelled as she narrowly avoided falling face first as the world went mad beneath her feet.

_'Maybe having a base on a living creature wasn't such a good idea...'_

**-X-**

Not far away the monstrous creature known to its creator as Manda 2 continued wrestling with the massive and ancient Shimagame. The massive serpent barely noticed as multiple explosive tags were hurled at its armoured skin by the islands defenders; the Kawako group.

Nothing escaped the notice of its master; the grotesquely mutated Yakushi Kabuto. _'They are not the ones I want...'_ The twisted being reached out with his will and his gargantuan servant responded, lunging from the foaming water with speed that should not have been possible for such a massive beast.

He sensed a new presence arrive on the scene; "Ah. I've been looking for you..."

**-X-**

Naruto and Samui raced through the forest, towards the sounds of crashing and screaming. Naruto stopped as he saw a familiar form.

"You!"

Naruto and Samui stood in the forest facing the grinning Hoshigaki Kisame.

**-X-**

At the island edge Kabuto stood facing Taijutsu master/monster Maito Gai.

"You're the one named Kabuto right? How could you have fallen so far? To imitate that monster Orochimaru?"

Kabuto looked mildly amused at the righteous words delivered with such drama.

"Don't you have a student who fashions himself as a clone of you?"

"Yes, but I'm a beast of a different kind to your former master." He declared confidently unleashing a blinding smile.

_'He's either insane or brilliant at psychological warfare. The information I, and Orochimaru-sama dug up could never decide which.'_ Kabuto mused.

**-X-**

Without making sudden movements, Naruto and Samui moved into a pincer position around the invading Akatsuki member. He seemed unconcerned, maybe even amused.

"Hey there kid." He turned to look at Samui. "Who's the arm candy? She the replacement for the pink girl?"

Naruto twitched, cold shock replaced with burning rage.

"You've traded up!" He leered at Samui licking his lips. "Much more meat on the bones. The pink one was built like wooden planks-" "**SHUT UP!**" Naruto roared, went red and charged the taunting Shark man, racing so fast the earth cracked under his pounding feet. He blocked Naruto's kunai strike but was forced back by the awesome force behind the Kyubi enhanced strike, the grass and stone behind his feet shattering as he tried to grip with his chakra. Finally they came to a stop.

Naruto realised he was getting weaker; he saw in shock his red chakra being devoured by a pulsating _Samehada_.

"Slow learner, aren't you?" Kisame took one hand off his sword and punched Naruto in the face with the force of a wrecking ball.

Seeing he was in trouble, Samui unleashed a bolt of lightning from her right hand that was easily absorbed as the Sharkskin blade was placed in front of it. She notice it didn't grow from the energy as it did absorbing Kyubi chakra. Naruto took the chance to regroup by creating a pack of Shadow clones that blitzed Kisame from multiple angles.

The real Naruto got distance, found a blind spot created by the clone attack and fired a small wind bullet at Kisame through one of his own clones succeeding in drawing blood from the Shark man and mutilating his black and red cloak.

A look of fury lingered for a moment on Kisame's bizarre face before being replaced by amusement. He turned to see more Ninja wearing both Leaf and Cloud insignia approaching in the distance.

"Supporting characters? I think the lady there has enough meat for me to munch on."

The newcomers looked on in astonishment as a torrent of water exploded from the blue invaders mouth. Astonishment became outright terror as the water changed form- into dozens, no hundreds of savage looking, almost ethereal sharks.

Carnivores and chakra enriched water flooded the forest crushing and drowning animals, even knocking massive trees down and tearing them out of their centuries old roots. Naruto and Samui scattered, leaping over the waves and dodging falling foliage.

The architect of this destruction rose from out the raging torrent mere meters in front of Samui.

"Hello." The shark man said jauntily before swinging his massive blade like a one handed Golf swing. Samui met the attack with a perfect block- that made no difference- her guard collapsed, the Kunoichi felt like every bone from her wrists through her elbows and shoulders was shattered as the massive blow broke her guard, lifted her off the water and sent her flying through the air at impressive altitude.

"Goodbye." He chuckled, his smile not leaving even as he turned to sidestep another wind blade thrown by an enraged Naruto.

**-X-**

Samui struggled up from her rough landing point. She was covered in cuts and bruises from where she had crashed through several trees on her flight. She heard the sounds of battle.

She was sure her forearm was fractured- unfortunately she didn't know any Medical jutsu or have any medical knowledge beyond the basics of applying bandages and splints.

_'That creature's strength... inhuman...'_ She found herself worrying about Naruto and hoping he was up to the challenge.

**-X-**

Kisame charged forwards looking to slice and crush and shave, Naruto created several clones and backed away wary of the Akatsuki members brute power. Unfortunately Kisame wasn't about to play his game; he created multiple water clones and had them fight against Naruto's clones while he charged after the caster.

Naruto remained motionless attempting to gather up nature energy as his clones were despatched. The image of Sakura's body in that river went through his mind as he saw Samui sent reeling. Only the knowledge that he would be a deadman if he turned his back on an Akatsuki member stopped him from running after her.

Naruto and a clone charged up a newly modified Fuuton Rasengan, recently renamed _Kazegan_. The jutsu's loud humming and bright light didn't impress;

"Oh wow, another Rasengan." Kisame mocked. He turned as he heard a roar behind him.

"And yet another whirling ball of death." His bored sounding voice was drowned out by the noise of a five meter wide _Odama Rasengan_ roaring towards him like a falling blue sun. He thrust Samehada into the massive chakra storm. Instantly the whirling attack lost size and brightness. He never lost track of the Naruto's behind him with the Wind jutsu though.

'_That jutsu is slow and very easy to predict he can't-'_ Suddenly the tiny Wind Rasengan launched from the Naruto's hands like a bullet, Kisame's eyes widened but reacted on instinct from years of combat; he leaned slightly to the left causing the projectile to miss him by inches. The Odama Rasengan had been completely absorbed by now.

"Getting better kid, but not-" The in flight Kazegan exploded sending blades of wind in all directions, slashing several deep cuts into Kisame's arm, shoulder and one dangerously close to his eyes.

Kisame felt warm liquid trickle down his face and hands, his eyes widened and his grin widened showing dagger sharp teeth. Naruto responded with his own savage grin- but knew his plan with his modified Rasengan hadn't paid off. His smile became genuine as he felt a familiar presence moving surreptitiously back into the fight.

**-X-**

Sneaking up on the battling Naruto and Kisame, Samui waited until Naruto had leapt from the ocean onto a dry tree.

She flipped through seals; _'Raiton: Kasui.' _She sent waves of electricity into the ocean hoping to fry the marauding shark. Kisame simply stood and took it without flinching. He turned and pointed at his feet.

'_Rubber leggings... how could I forget?'_ She berated in her head.

"Heh, heh, all body and no brains? All water Ninja take precautions against electricity girl." He taunted.

He soon regretted his boasting; exploding into action with Senjutsu speed, the original Naruto drove a fist into the Shark man's midsection. Bones collapsed and the Akatsuki member went flying coughing up blood.

**-X-**

Maito Gai charged the monstrous looking cloaked figure, his superior Taijutsu forcing his opponent to the defensive.

Kabuto lashed out with Kunai only for his basic attack to be dodged and repaid with a devastating _Goken_ kick to the jaw. Still smiling, Kabuto staggered back. Seeing the bizarre green beast on the attack again he lashed out again with his trademark chakra scalpels, this time the Leaf Jonin- confusing his opponent with sudden changes in speed, accelerated and caught Kabuto with another kick before he could strike with his corrupted medical jutsu. Still not dropping his smile Kabuto unleashed his former masters trademark Hidden Shadow Snake Hands. The leaf ninja was unfazed and batted them away with ease and struck Kabuto with yet another bone shattering blow.

He smiled monstrously, as though unconcerned that he was getting battered. He spoke as though talking to a small child; "I was hoping to save this ability for others... oh well..."

Kabuto threw off his cloak revealing a pale- seemingly cracked body. If Gai was bothered by the Nukenin's mutated visage he didn't show it- he stood confidently waiting for his opponents attack.

The warped missing ninja made an unfamiliar handsign- then transformed into an even more horrific creature; four grotesque horns erupted from his silver hair, the dark markings around his golden eyes extended onto and down his back.

The creature charged Gai with astonishing speed and struck, knocking the green beast off his feet and crashing through a tree.

"Mere Taijutsu alone isn't enough against me." Kabuto chuckled sounding more like Orochimaru with each passing second.

A blinding light erupted from the debris where Gai had fallen. A form exploded knocking tons of forestry aside like washing on the floor; "**BEHOLD, TAIJUTSU, STRENGTHENED, SET ABLAZE BY THE FLAMES OF YOUTH!**" He yelled, bulging veins and unnaturally coloured skin adding to his deranged reappearance.

He leapt at Kabuto feet first so fast he created a pressure wave as he roared like a missile at his target. He then spun around like a corkscrew, his feet bursting into flames. Kabuto stood astonished at his opponent who now looked like a madly spinning, flaming comet.

"**HAKUCHUU SUISEI!**" The fireball yelled as he crashed into his opponent, shattering, liquefying then incinerating bone, inner organs and flesh within the space of seconds and generating a boom that in the distance likely sounded like a volcano erupting.

Gai disengaged from the insanely over the top corkscrew kick and closed the opened gates. While he could go much higher than this level, opening the gates was not something to do lightly.

He looked down at the defeated Kabuto.

Except that it wasn't Kabuto; the being he'd just defeated, transformed, becoming another individual entirely; while much of the corpse was crushed and burned and otherwise misshapen, he could still identify that the individual before him was taller than Kabuto, had blue hair and looked maybe in his early forties. He had suture marks down his chest and throat indicating he had been autopsied, maybe embalmed.

'_Some advanced variation of Shikon no Jutsu? And...'_ "I HATE IT WHEN THINGS DIE AND TURN OUT TO BE OTHER THINGS!" He yelled not knowing or caring who he was talking to.

"But where's the real Kabuto?" He asked suddenly grave.

**-X-**

The real Kabuto chuckled as was held restrained by the tendril like wooden bindings of Captain Yamato.

"What are you doing here?" The ANBU asked. An advantage of wood style was that he could sense through his wooden creations an individual's chakra- he could tell this was the real Kabuto- but taking him down was too easy. _'Something is wrong here...'_ He felt a strange sensation in the bindings holding his prisoner. It shot up the wooden extension of his body and entered his arm.

"Aaah!" Yamato disconnected from his jutsu like he'd been stabbed. He stepped away from Kabuto who escaped from his still intact bindings by apparently disconnecting both arms from their sockets and slithering out from his entrapment- the arms snapped back into their sockets with a sickening pop.

Yamato staggered dizzily, feeling his strength leaving him. "Poison?" He asked shocked.

"Yes. Lord Orochimaru conducted many experiments on cells stolen from the tomb of the First Hokage, attempting to replicate his abilities both before and after his leaving the village. One of my additions to his research; a poison that disrupts the highly specialised chakra of a wood style user, mixed into my body and transmitted through your wooden creations into your body."

Yamato searched his memories of ANBU training for some way to counter such an attack as he collapsed to his knees, his chest tight, he couldn't breathe, his head spun and lights flickered across his eyes.

"It is a weakness of Mokuton that your body is physically connected to your creations." Kabuto lectured as Yamato fell into unconsciousness.

**-X-**

Kisame sat up from where he had been slammed. His chest was caved in with white bones sticking out like oddly shaped smooth sticks and a proverbial river of blood streaming from his chest. Despite this he was smiling.

"Nice... shot..." He choked out.

"Why won't you die?" Naruto yelled sounding more annoyed than frightened.

Naruto and Samui stared in shock as injuries that should have been instantly fatal healed within seconds leaving not even a scratch.

"His sword must use the chakra it steals to transfers it to its user to heal from serious injuries." Samui theorised. _'Not cool.'_

"Yes... I never tire, never fall... some have called me... the tail-less Biju..." Kisame warned.

The disturbed pair realised he was making hand signs.

Clearly having regained his strength a massive explosion of water, even larger than the one unleashed earlier, exploded from his bloodstained mouth. The wave overtook the pair instantly, the water well over their heads and covering as far as the Ninja could see as they spun, separated by the crushing current.

Attempting to right himself, Naruto saw a monstrous form moving swiftly through the water.

'_What the hell is that? A summon?' _

It circled around him like a predator, and Naruto realised with shock that it was Kisame; he had transformed monstrously; his body was streamlined yet heavily muscled hinting at greater physical strength, his face was near unrecognisable, gills opened and closed on his... neck? Torso? Webbed hands and feet ended in claws to tear and slice, a huge fin ran from his head across his spine, protrusions from his elbows that looked like fins but could have been blades from his perspective and... _'Is that a tail he's got?'_ He saw bubbles erupt from the monsters gills and it disappeared into the murky water. Naruto reached out with Sage chakra to track the beast discovering it was homing in on another familiar chakra signature.

'_He's going after Samui!'_ He realising and chased after the Man-Shark, images of Sakura's death replaying in his mind.

There was little warning for Samui, who was spinning through the water, barely conscious after the shock of the immense water wave coming into contact with broken bones and weary muscles.

The monstrous form collided with the struggling Kunoichi and Naruto swore he could hear snapping bones through the water. He surged forwards using his nature energy enhanced strength to move as fast as the shark man.

He grabbed the unconscious Samui and hurled her away using as much strength as he had towards the edge of the water prison just as Kisame crashed into him using bone crushing force.

They grappled as they spun through the water, Kisame repeatedly punched Naruto in the diaphragm hoping to force the air from his body and get him to drown.

Naruto kicked the monstrous being away from him.

He sensed that Samui had left the Water prison barrier.

'_She's safe, now to finish this...'_

Naruto lungs burned as his supply of oxygen ran dangerously low. His body was screaming for air as he swam downwards to the ground, grass and plants now for all intents and purposes at the bottom on an ocean.

Kisame looked down upon his prey who keeled over. _'He's out of oxygen, he's done...'_ The monster of the Hidden Mist was caught completely off guard as Naruto exploded off the ground and sped- right past Kisame.

'_What the hell is he-' _

That was the last thought Kisame had before the ground Naruto previously occupied exploded, shockwaves raced through the water hitting Kisame like an avalanche.

**-X-**

Samui struggled to her feet, coughing up water and wincing as she held her surely broken ribs. She stared back at the massive chakra construct behind her. It was so massive she couldn't see the top or either sides of it.

It fluctuated then burst, knocking the Kunoichi rolling with waves of released water.

She struggled to her feet again.

She staggered through the now ankle deep stream of water holding her sides screaming in pain. Bright blond hair and shredded orange fabric soon caught her eye.

She ran to Naruto, he lay face down in the thinning water. She rolled him and checked him over.

_'He's not breathing!'_

She thought back to what little she knew of CPR; she placed her hands over his chest and began compressions. "One, two, three, four..." She placed her head on Naruto's chest. Silence. She pinched Naruto's nostrils shut and breathed into his mouth intending to push air into his lungs.

**-X-**

Naruto forced himself up out of the water. Except that he wasn't on the Turtle Island anymore. He was somewhere- he hated to say- more familiar.

"**I've been inside you, watching all your life. You're still weak Naruto.**" Towering above him despite crouching or lying down was the Kyubi No Youko- its booming, growling voice as evil as ever.

"What do you want? I'm in the middle of a fight you fuzzy bastard."

The monster Fox grinned- as much as the inhuman features could. "**The minnow-man has been dealt with, also your rutting partner still lives-**" The beasts eyes narrowed strangely. "**What is it about mammary glands you humans find so appealing?**"

"Samui is okay?" Naruto couldn't help but ask.

"**On that subject, how do you intend to avenge the pink mite and kill Sasuke? Your rape- I mean battle- with him at the snake's hideout was pitiful.**"

Naruto looked up and stared the monster in the eye. "Not by taking handouts or being anything other than me."

The Fox looked confused. "I'm not a walking weapon, I'm not a clone of the fourth Hokage or Jiraiya. I'm not the second yellow flash or some reincarnated God. I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I beat the odds!"

The Fox sniffed at him. The beat the odds part was a little lame but the rest of the speech was good.

_'And history repeating is so boring...'_ The tailed beast thought as his container disappeared from the mindscape.

**-X-**

Back in the real world Samui leapt back as Naruto spluttered and coughed up water.

"Naruto! What happened?"

"Paper bomb... water... transfers shockwaves better than air... so..." He was struggling to maintain consciousness with what looked like internal injuries. Samui checked him over with her limited medical skills astonished by Leaf Ninja's risky, reckless, and weirdly scientific strategy.

**-X-**

Less than a hundred meters away a crippled Kisame, now reverted to his humanoid form, was struggling to get back up; eardrums ruptured, his breathing was impaired due to obvious internal injuries, he was coughing up blood.

He froze as he saw two feet in front of him and looks up;

He recognized the bizarre form of the Taijutsu master Mighto Gai.

"It's over." He declared.

"Whoever you are."

"Gaaarrrkkk!" Kisame blacked out in astonishment.

**END CHAPTER 7**

* * *

**AUTHORS NOTES**

In this universe Naruto learned wind Jutsu besides Rasenshuriken during the Wind training arc- it made no sense that Naruto could come up with an entirely new Jutsu without learning the basic Wind Jutsu first (cutting leaves and waterfalls don't count- I consider that like learning correct breathing exercises for real life martial arts), especially after Rasenshuriken became hazardous to use for some reason.

In canon, apart from constructive use of Shadow clones there was nothing particularly unique about Naruto's combat style; the Rasengan wasn't his move, and he couldn't even do it correctly. Rasenshuriken was so impractical and inconsistent that it often seemed useless, are many of the Rasengan variants even worth mentioning?

Naruto's training; I tried to avoid the fanfic training cliches like him learning a Taijutsu style that trumps all others, learning sword fighting (I don't see the point), clan scrolls that show up in some implausible series of events, etc.

I wrote then rewrote the training scenes multiple times (the first time reminded me of Rocky 4 for some reason.)

I also tried to individualise characters fighting styles; Naruto's is similar to canon except more refined, Samui goes for multiple stage attacks so if they dodge the first one, the second one hits them, Kisame is a chakra beast who just rushes and crushes his opponents and Gai is just brilliantly insane.

On the subject of Rasengans, I don't like or intend to use the jutsu as anything more than a starting point for more advanced jutsu, I hate unimaginative derivatives like Odama Rasengan as you could probably tell.

There is a good non-canon reason for why Kabuto took Yamato prisoner.

**JUTSU LIST**

**Original Jutsu;  
**

**Raiton: Kasui (Lightning Release: Stream)** The user generates unshaped lightning chakra in their hands and release it into a conductor they are in contact with. Basically a less advanced version of Chidori Current.

**Kugiri (Pause) **A seal that paralyzes any living being it comes into contact with. Basically this is the juinjutsu Danzo used to paralyse Sasuke during their fight on the bridge except with the circular pattern of more tradiotional sealing jutsu not the Hexagram like pattern Danzo used.

**Shikon no Jutsu (Dead soul technique)** This jutsu was used during the Chunin exams by Kabuto to escape Kakashi. It involves temporarily reanimating a corpse to create the illusion of a living person, and manoeuvre it at will with chakra. In this chapter Kabuto has created an advanced version with superior combat abilities.

**Hakuchuu suisei (midday comet)** A secret move of the eight inner gates (Hachimon), basically a ludicrously over the top flying corkscrew kick. This move has greater range than Asaku Jaku and is less damaging to the user than Hirudora

**Kazegan (Wind sphere)** A modified version of the Futon; Rasengan (which I considered pointless in canon). This Jutsu solves the Rasengan's dangerous problem of needing point blank range to work by being able to be fired like a projectile, while its range and blast area isn't as good as Jutsu like the drilling air bullet it has vastly superior slicing power.

**Power levels:**

0- Civilian (Nonexistent)  
1- Academy Student  
2- Genin  
3- Advanced Genin  
4- Low Chunin  
5- Chunin  
6- Elite Chunin  
7- Low Jounin  
8- Jounin  
9- Elite Jounin  
10- Kage (S-Class)  
11- Legendary (essentially without peer in the known shinobi world in the relevant category, having at most one or two others capable of matching his/her level)

**Naruto power level**

Classification: A Class

**Power ranking**

Ninjutsu- 9

Genjutsu- 5

Taijutsu- 7

Weapon skill (kunai, swords, staffs, traps, etc) - 6

Fuuinjutsu (Seal knowledge and skill)- 8

Chakra level- 11

**Elemental manipulation levels:**

Fire- F (None)

Water- F (None),

Wind- A (Affinity)

Lightning- F (None)

Earth- F (None)


	8. The Unknown Future

**COLD PART 8- THE UNKNOWN FUTURE, **

**AUTHORS NOTES**

**AU of Manga chapter 452 onwards- A very different meeting between Naruto and Team Samui creates a different reaction from Naruto.**

**Apologies for the extreme length between chapters for this story.**

**'**_**This**_**' means someone is thinking.**

**Italics alone means the name of something, i.e. **_**Jinchuriki, Katon Jutsu**_**.**

**Horizontal ruler (a line across the page) means a page break or timeskip, may be a few minutes, may be a few hours...**

**-X- means a scene change, i.e. we start with Kabuto and Madara/Tobi/whatever in the secret lair. Then we go to Naruto and Samui on turtle island- a scene change from a secret lair to an island.**

**Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto or any of the characters or ideas involved. This is non profit-I am making no money from this.**

* * *

**Hi No Kuni...**

It was dusk, the sun was lowering in the sky and the formerly hot day was rapidly cooling as the night came.

In a clearing in the forest, Uzumaki Naruto crouched in solemn thought looking at something that filled him regret and sadness.

He had found the grave of Uzumaki Kushina- his mother.

"Mom... I'm sorry. I failed you... I failed my Nindo... I made a promise. I stopped them... Madara, Kabuto... Sasuke... I stopped them all... the fourth Shinobi World war ended and things..."

He took a long breath.

"I once thought I could bring peace to the world... but there is always division..."

**-X-**

"I am not your enemy!"

Dodging searing hot lava shaped like darts, Naruto yelled at Kurotsuchi, granddaughter of the current Tsuchikage. She and a team of Shinobi had broken into the Tailed Beast temple inside Shimagame with the intention of killing the Konoha Jinchuriki and any who stood in their way.

His cries fell on deaf ears as the stone Kunoichi continued the attack, mixing Earth, Fire, water and Lava Jutsu with amazing variety. With a burst of Senjutsu enhanced speed Naruto closed in and knocked her backwards across the stone floor, not using anything close to full strength for fear of killing what should have been an ally.

"What are you doing?" he yelled at the tumbling over enemy.

Kurotsuchi responded by hurling a lightning fast kunai superheated to the point of glowing white-hot.

"I'm doing this to save lives!" She yelled angrily. The kunai missed by a mile, it hit a stone wall behind Naruto, transferring the heat into the stone nearly liquefying the dense rock.

"Things have changed. Madara is targeting civilians to lure the two remaining Jinchuriki out and if he gets them-" "What do you mean targeting civilians?!" Naruto shouted fear rising within him.

"Armies of zombies- reanimated Shinobi and some kind of plant men are attacking civilian villages and killing all within, Honomeku, Gachin and half a dozen other towns and villages have been destroyed already!"

Her voice barely held its level as she shouted. The young woman had walked through tents full to bursting with dead and mutilated people, Shinobi, civilians, even children. It didn't matter to the hordes of the Akatsuki.

"While you and the walking fanservice over there are having fun, people are dying. Our comrades and families are dying!"

Naruto's eyes widened with horror as the Iwa ninja continued.

"As long as you live the slaughter will continue. So you must die." She strode forward while Naruto himself stood frozen in horror making no attempt to move.

"Naruto! Don't listen to her! You swore to stop the Akatsuki! Are you going to give up because of one conversation with a complete stranger?"

Naruto started at the outburst from the usually ice-cold Samui directed at him. A couple of renegade Shinobi from Kumo did as well. Emotion outbursts weren't in the ice queen's style. Naruto snapped out of his funk and sent Kurotsuchi flying like a pinwheel with a mini-Rasengan.

"Do you believe leading this idiot on is worth the risk?! The lives lost already?!" Another of the rogue Shinobi shouted.

The response she gave was all Naruto needed to fight on...

**-X-**

Naruto smiled as he thought of the Kunoichi. "Mom... what would you want for me? What would you think of my life, my friends, my..." He paused as he thought about Samui, about what the often seemingly remote and aloof young woman had become to him, when things had changed between them...

**-X-**

**One year ago...**

For days now, Naruto (in the containment of the underground Tailed Beast Temple) had been attempting to merge small amounts of nature chakra with low levels of Kyuubi chakra- the results were so explosive he doubted anywhere else on Earth other than the chakra absorbing cavern he was in right now could have withstood the stress.

What he was doing required higher levels of intuitive power manipulation than anything he had attempted previously. To accomplish this, Naruto had attempted meditation, shadow clones, even covered himself in a bewildering array of seals. He theorised that what was needed was a bridge- some kind of converter for differing energy types. There was progress. Frustratingly slow though it was.

Naruto was exhausted, but he couldn't sleep, not without nightmares. He went to the kitchen (or food hut to be more accurate) for something to boost his energy levels.

Inside he saw Samui in a plain white nightgown. Naruto realised this was the first time he had seen her in something other than her eye-catching, undeniably appealing yet drably coloured Ninja gear and was instantly struck by how lovely she looked.

The Kunoichi was holding a book in one hand and a glass of unknown liquid in the other. Naruto blinked at the cover; _'The_ _Greatest Show On Earth.'_

Naruto pointed at the book eager to have something to talk with the often remote Kunoichi about other than work and battle.

"I saw travelling shows and went to carnivals with the Pervy Sage, I like the food best." He blurted out hoping he didn't sound like a pathetically random idiot.

Samui responded flatly; "Actually this book chronicles the evolution of Ninjutsu from uncertain roots as a single, almost cult like organisation, to splinter into clans, to reunite as villages becoming a global phenomenon with no true leadership and open hostility against one another."

Naruto stood and stared, his expression one of frozen dumbness. Samui was afraid she'd lost him.

"That means-" "I know what it means. I just was hoping not to sound like an idiot in front of you. Seriously, is there anything around here I can ingest to kill myself painlessly?"

Samui smirked at that. "You're not that bad. I read when I can't sleep. Do you want to borrow something to read?"

Naruto shrugged. "Me and big, scary paper things with words on them don't get along."

"I'm sure it's not that bad, you're good with sealing."

They left the hut and were walking through the night.

"Yeah, but that's different."

They soon arrived at Samui's hut. Naruto's face had gone serious. "Does that book have Shinobi history in it?"

Samui nodded.

"It might tell me something about what we did wrong for the world to get so screwed up." He still remembered Pain's question about peace. He hadn't answered it yet.

"I haven't read it myself yet." Samui replied.

"Maybe you could read it to me. Might put me to sleep."

Samui turned to look at him, the expression in her blue eyes narrowing to annoyance.

"Not that you're boring! I mean you have a nice voice- I mean it sounds good... you have... good pronunciation?" He continued to babble. Samui smiled and opened her door. She ushered the embarrassed boy in.

She agreed to read to him- probably wasn't the smartest thing to do given their relationship but she couldn't remember the last time someone complimented her voice. Her breasts, backside, legs and 'grace' when running and jumping were commonly praised. But never her voice.

Naruto listened to her story; war, tragedy, betrayal, loss- but it sounded wonderful from her and he saw such emotions in her eyes as she spoke; sorrow, anger, horror. He didn't notice consciousness leave him as he drifted off to sleep on the coach.

Samui put an extra blanket over him and went to bed herself feeling satisfied, even weirdly happy.

**-X-**

"Getting turned on by her voice, not just her... other assets... I think you'd approve Mom. Course it hasn't always been touchy feely, sappy sweet romance. Besides the first time we met and she made me her bitch there was..."

**-X-**

Naruto walked through the unnamed, ruined, still smouldering village, his despair growing, feeling as helpless as when he saw Sakura's body in that river.

He remembered the funeral after Orochimaru's attack on Konoha, the destruction of the village three years later at the twisted, undead hands of Pain, Jiraiya's words to him about war and hatred.

Something grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him hard. He dimly saw Samui standing in front of him saying something.

Naruto stared at her.

He grabbed her roughly and kissed her. He wanted to feel something, anything besides pain and helplessness.

_'It's all futile... the war and death never changes... so I might as well do what I want...'_

At first Samui pushed him away, but he grabbed her again and held her tightly. Soon the pair were wrestling on the floor tearing off each other's clothes still stained with blood from fighting their fellow Shinobi...

**-X-**

"Screwing out in the open at the sight of a massacre... even the pervy Sage didn't write anything like that in his trashy novels..." He went red as he realised this really wasn't appropriate discussion for the grave of your mother. Or appropriate at any time or place really.

He shook his head and got back on track;

"The five Shinobi villages did unite- when we were all threatened with destruction by the Akatsuki..."

Naruto closed his eyes for a moment as he remembered flashes of the destruction of most of Iwagakure by Madara and the tailed beasts under his control, Kumo being hit and ravaged, thousands of civilians across the elemental nations being killed by Zetsu and zombie armies simply to draw two remaining jinchuriki out, his own final battle with Sasuke...

Naruto remembered the look of fury, horror and disbelief on the face of his former teammate as his latest Rasenshuriken variant, empowered by directly merging poisonous Kyubi chakra and explosive Nature energy and channelling the catastrophic result, penetrated Susanoo's seemingly impenetrable defences and blew the last Uchiha's arms and legs off. Naruto watched the limbless avenger horribly die from shock and bleed out wondering what Sakura would have thought of this.

He remembered being told of Madara himself dying at the hands of the five Kage; by the now late old man Onoki's final blow with his devastating _Jinton: Genkai Hakuri no Jutsu_ after Tsunade used a ranged version of nervous disruption to anchor the masked madman to the world...

**-X-**

A year had passed since the war's end- new factions had emerged during the reconstruction of the Shinobi world; some remnants of Iwa sought the seven now loose tailed beasts- released after Naruto and Killer Bee destroyed the Gedo Mazo statue. Similar goals were followed by former citizens of the land of Water, enemies of Terumi Mei's progressive regime. Smaller nations like Kuma No Kuni and Yama No Kuni were becoming increasingly militant sensing a chance to rise to power in the confused world.

"I thought if I punched out enough people, fought hard enough, all war and hatred would end, that we could forget the past and create a better future. I thought by shouting loud enough I could make everyone believe. Some do. Are humans not meant to live in peace? Will there always be war and people like Madara, Kabuto and Sasuke- people so ruined by war and hatred that they now only exist to create more war and pain?"

He growled in frustration.

"Sometimes I think everything we fought for, all the good we did is being forgotten, twisted, ignored... I guess some people might say that was human nature..."

He looked up at the sky.

"Sasuke... would you laugh... or at least smirk at that? Hoping I'd admit I was wrong and you were right? That I'd validate you? Say that hate and vengeance was right all along?" He paused. He put his hand on his mothers weathered tombstone.

"I won't. Even now, as I see trouble starting up again I believe things can change again."

Naruto stood up. "I might never live to see true peace. Ninja might fight for a thousand years. But I won't stop."

"Peace takes time. The road ahead will be violent, hard and long but we will find true peace."

Naruto turned away from the grave to see Samui watching a few meters away. A benefit of the 'New World' was improved relations between Konoha and Kumo; Naruto and Samui were an official couple now and Naruto hoped to be more soon. They walked away hand in hand.

Naruto placed a hand into his jacket/bag rummaging around for something.

"Hey, Samui-chan... there's something I want to ask you..."

* * *

**END**

**AUTHORS NOTES**

My sincere apologies if the sudden ending disappoints or angers but I've been spinning my wheels with this story for months and it's been frustrating to put it mildly.

The first draft had a war between allied shinobi and zombies and zetsu's (similar to canon but expanded upon), I rejected this because I realized I was making the same mistake as in the earlier fic Pain For Real, in that random battles weren't what attracted people to read this story. What interested people was the first couple of chapters tapping into genuine anger fans had over Naruto's irrational obsession with Sasuke and general delusion about the dark and violent world around him, if I couldn't carry on with that there was no point to this story. So I created a second version of this story chapter with the battles as an almost afterthought (Tsunade witnessed the battles via the Third Hokages crystal ball and basically listed them), while the chapters emphasis was on Naruto training and interacting with Samui. This didn't work for me either as it seemed to similar to the previous chapter (although I did salvage the book reading part). The THIRD version of the story was to primarily revolve around a conspiracy involving a group of rogue Shinobi led by Kurotsuchi hunting Naruto down to kill him (hoping to save lives at the expense of one), the moral here was that there would always be divisions amongst people (no quick easy answer to all of the world's problems), I decided to drop this as I have found it very difficult to draw up enthusiasm for Naruto fics lately, partially because I especially don't like were the series has gone recently.

I posted this chapter as while a lot of people won't like it I feel it is better than abandoning it or just dropping it without notice, and this ending feels a lot more realistic than a simple happily ever after.

**Jinton: Genkai Hakuri no Jutsu (Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique) -** an example of the Jinton kekkei genkai that dismantles (or possibly simply destroys with a highly contained explosion) matter, this Jutsu can be precisely controlled and surgical or amazingly powerful and destructive.

**Kuma No Kuni (Land of Bears) **- country shown in anime filler, it is the location of Hoshigakure (village hidden in among stars).

**Yama No Kuni (Land of Mountains) -** another anime filler country, it was the location of Kagero village.

**Honomeku** (to be seen dimly, glimmer) **Gachin** (clash) - original villages I created in the rejected war drafts of this story- they existed to "show off" the power and skills of the reanimated Shinobi.

**The Greatest Show On Earth** was a book by Richard Dawkins on the subject of evolution.


End file.
